Below are some suggestions, which could be incorporated or adapted and incorporated into either a special service or a regular Sunday service. Some of it will not be your parish's 'thing', so feel free to adapt it as you wish but do bear in mind some of the suggestions below to make the service more edifying for those present. It may have to be adapted if athletes are present or not. It may be used post games a community or host town want to celebrate the Special Olympics World Games, and/or as a means of celebration and closure for the local committee and others who gave of their time during the Games. When schools gather in September they may want a prayerful reflection on the event that focused us in June.

We have over 160 countries attending the games and we want to ensure that we are respectful of the differing faiths and traditions that will be present. The rule is don't presume: check with someone who has experience of working with differing faith traditions. You can always go over the ceremony beforehand with your visitors knowing that good discussion and necessary adaptations will create a wonderful opportunity for interfaith liturgy.

The Special Olympics provides us with an opportunity to celebrate diversity, success and the attainment of potential. It is also an opportunity to build upon the goodwill which has been present in communities in the months of preparation the lives and talents of those with special needs in our own communities the rapport that has developed while the athletes and their fellow visitors has been in the host town.

Celebrations for those with special needs may at first appear to be a challenge. Is the building suitable for those with special needs? Do you have wheelchair access? Print off service sheets and make sure that you have some in extra-large print for those with sight difficulties. Make sure that your P.A. system is working well, to ensure that those who have hearing difficulties have the best possibility of hearing and participating in the service. Use plenty of symbols even if it is not 'normal' in your service as it is a more powerful means of communicating with those with particular special needs as is as much participation as possible. Within every community there is the talent and expertise to have a wonderful celebration. This celebration is a wonderful opportunity to engage with those with special needs in our own local communities. At the planning stage emphasis should be placed upon the following elements:

Light: the use of torches, candles, braziers symbolising the olympic flame

Music: Involvement and participation at all levels will be possible. The use of percussion instruments (drums, bodhrans, cymbals, triangles, shakers, etc) all add to the sound and encourage participation.

Dance: Dance and movement will provide variety and a visual effect. Young people with special needs love to dance and the opportunity to dance could be a great challenge not only to the visitors but to the local community as well.

Flags/Colour: Streamers, bunting, local flags, club jerseys, national flags will add to the festive and international sense of the occasion

Costume: Encouraging participants to dress in colours of the visiting country, use of tracksuits in suitable colours all will add to the sense of the occasion. Irish costume with its wonderful colour and design will add to any celebration.

The Liturgy

Gathering Song and Building up of the Sacred Space if you are using a building other than a church

The sacred space should incorporate

Christian symbols: Cross (an abstract cross can be made from an appropriate piece of branch, or, a Celtic one could be used, or, a conventional one from the church)

Symbols representing the country and the host town,

Colours of the visiting country and that of the host town

A burner or torch could be made (similar to that of the olympic torch). The use of cotton wool and methylated spirits will provide a very bright lively flame without any smoke

Words of Welcome

A person from the community should be invited to welcome all that are gathered. The mayor, the local teacher, the rector, the chairperson of the host town committee would be very suitable.

Opening Prayer:

With joy and praise we gather this evening/day.
We thank God for all the gifts
that we have given us and that we have shared.
We ask God's blessing on the days ahead.
May we all be winners and brave in our attempts,
and through our games and competitions come to know your love.

Reading:

Suggestions: Micah 4:1-5, Eph 2:13-14, Eph 4:1-7
There are many others to choose from and some will be fitting in with the prescribed readings for the Church on that Sunday

Sermon:

The Special Olympics World Games 2003 motto is

LET ME WIN, BUT, IF I CANNOT WIN,
LET ME BE BRAVE IN THE ATTEMPT.

Prayers

We pray for our country ..........
We pray in thanks for all who have helped in hosting the Special Olympics ..........
We pray for all the athletes ..........
We pray for all who have volunteered ..........
We pray for a deep appreciation of the gifts we all possess
and the courage to find creative ways of sharing them ..........
We remember that great things often have small beginnings.
That we may strive to take small steps to nurture goodness ..........

Community Prayer

The Lord's Prayer/Peace Prayer of St Francis

The assembled group should be invited to pray The Lord's Prayer or the Prayer of St Francis in their own language - Irish could also be used. The wonderful mixture of sounds will echo Pentecost Day when all those assembled in Jerusalem praise God in their own language and unity overcame difference through the gift of faith.

Exchange of Gifts

This moment is an opportunity for the hosts to give a small token gift to the visiting athlete and in turn to accept a gift that the athlete may have brought with them for the host. It could also be the opportunity for a formal presentation from the Host Town to the Visiting Group of Athletes and vice versa.

Concluding Prayer

Some suggested prayers that may be useful (put forward by the Ecumenical Pastoral Care Team, World Games 2003)

Extracts from Favourite Prayers compiled by Deborah Cassidy Past Times 1998
Trevor Williams, Leader of the Corrymeela Community (Ecumenical)

Give us Lord God, a vision of your world as you would make it:
A world where the weak are protected and none go hungry or poor:
A world where the benefits of civilized life are shared and everyone can enjoy them:
A world where different races, nations and cultures live in tolerance and mutual respect:
A world where peace is built with justice and justice is guided by love:
And give us the inspiration and courage to build it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Robert Louis Stevenson

Grant us Lord, inward happiness and the serenity that comes from living close to you. Daily, renew in us the sense of joy, and let your eternal Spirit dwell in our souls and bodies, filling every corner of our hearts with light and gladness, So that, bearing about with us the infection of good courage, we may be diffusers of life, and meet all that comes, of good or ill, even death itself., with gallant and high hearted happiness: giving you thanks always for all things.

From the Holy Quran

In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds,
The compassionate, the merciful,
Master of the Day of Judgment.
You we worship and of you we ask help.
Guide us upon the straight path:
The path of those whom you have blessed:
Not of those who have incurred your wrath
Nor of those who have gone astray.

Phyllis Krystal

Please think through me,
Feel through me,
Speak through me,
Act through me,
Love through me.
I surrender, trust and accept
Whatever comes today like it or not.

Lionel Blue (Jewish Liturgy)

Our God and God of our Fathers, we thank you for teaching us how to save each other and ourselves, to give and to receive and to support each other on life's journey. There is no limit to our ascent so there is no limit to the good we can do. There is no joy we cannot have, there is no end to the giving. There is no height we cannot attain, for we were created to need each other's love and understanding.

The doors of heaven are open to all people. So let us share our blessings and enter in. In the past week we may have denied happiness to others and to ourselves, for selfishness lies in our way and we can be enemies to our own happiness. Your Sabbath calls us back to the truth. We learn again the way to change hatred into love and banish bitterness. We know again the strength of good that is within our grasp. We see again the purity of our souls and your image shining within us. Blessed are you, Lord, who teaches us to serve each other. Amen

Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi,

O my God, the soul which you placed within me is pure.
You created it. You formed it, you breathed it into me, and you preserve it within me.
You will one day take it from me, but will restore it to me in the hereafter.
So long as the soul is within me, I will give thanks to you. O Lord my God and God of my fathers, Master of all works. Lord of all souls. Blessed are You - the Lord, who restores the souls to the dead.

Ronald Blythe, A Suffolk Prayer for those who travel.

We remember before God all those who make our journey here happy and fulfilled, our families and our friends. We name in our hearts those who live a long way from us and we do not often see.

We remember before God all those who are sick in body or in mind, people in hospital, people undergoing difficult treatments.

And we remember before God all those who for a while, have lost those they love and are sad.

We remember all prisoners in their isolation and suffering the world over, especially prisoners of conscience. We thanks God for all his mercies to us, for making our lives in this beautiful place, for giving us good food, good homes and good friends. We thank him for the countryside in the summer and for our gardens and fields. We thank him for the gifts of the spirit, books and music.

Most of all we thank him for allowing us to come here in fellowship and worship as we say ............

Sarum Primer (1558)

God be in my head, and in my understanding:
God be in my eyes and in my looking:
God be in my mouth and in my speaking:
God be in my heart and in my thinking
God be at my end, and at my departing

Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow (Russian Orthodox)

O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon your Holy will. In every hour of the day reveal your will to me. Bless my dealings with all those who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and with firm conviction that your will governs all. In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by you. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. Give me the strength of the coming day with all that it will bring. Direct my will, teach me to pray and continue to pray within me. Amen

Irish Blessing

May the roads rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again may God hold you in the hollow of his hands.

Prayer of an Inter Faith Group: Boethius (c.480-524)

O, Father give the spirit power to climb
To the fountain of all light, and be purified.
Break through the mists of the earth, the weight of the clod,
Shine forth in splendour, you that are calm weather,
And quiet resting place for the faithful souls.
To see you is the end and the beginning,
You carry us, and You go before us
You are the journey and the journey's end. Amen

A Volunteers Prayer. William Barclay

O God, our Father, deliver us this day from all that would keep us from serving you and from serving our fellow human beings as we ought.

Deliver us from all coldness of heart: and grant that neither our hand nor our heart may ever remain shut to the appeal of someone's need.

Deliver us from all weakness of will: from the indecision which cannot make up its mind: from the irresolution that cannot abide by a decision once it is made: from the ability to say no to the tempting voices which come to us from inside and from outside.

Deliver us from all failure in endeavour: from being too easily discouraged: from giving up and giving in too soon: from allowing any task to defeat us, because it is too difficult.

Grant unto us today the love, which is generous in help: the determination, which is steadfast in decision: the perseverance, which is enduring unto the end: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Martin Luther King: Service

Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve you. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb to agree to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theorem of thermo-dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Service

Teach us, good Lord,
To serve you as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost:
To fight and not to heed the wounds:
To toil and not to seek for rest:
To labour and not to ask for reward
Save that of knowing that we do Thy will.

Saint Francis Peace Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith:
Where there is despair, hope:
Where there is darkness, light:
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love:

For it is in giving that we receive:
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned:
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

G.A. Cleveland Shrigley: For Tolerance

Father of all people, free us form every prejudice born of hate and fear and kept alive by ignorance and pride. Open our hearts and minds to new friendships and new contributions of the spirit from races and cultures, religion and classes other than our own.

Enrich us by the great thoughts and experiences of all people and countries. With your children on earth make us sharers of your abundant life and workers together in your kingdom of love and peace.

Celtic Blessing

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the Son of peace to you.

Peace: Northern Ireland School Children, From Peace by Andrew McNeill

Peace in the city,
Peace in the House
Peace in my heart
And peace everywhere.

Please guide the leaders in our land to make this country a better and safer place. Make all the wars stop so that people can live in peace. Show us how to share what we have so that no one in the world need be hungry.

Dear Lord God,
Even thought we are different
Let us be grateful for the way you have made us and for the world we live in.
Let us talk people out of bombing and fighting. Let us always respect others and try to think how they feel. Amen

Leadership: St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Notice everything
Correct a little
Cherish the brethren.

In thought - Faith
In word - Truth
In Deed - Courage
In life - Service