How the Olympic Park Chaplaincy Works

The picture is, I'm afraid, scarily realistic, I did ask someone to photoshop it and make me look less 'grim'; but the person I asked had fainted by that point, so I didn't like to ask anyone else.

So, yes that's me, wearing enough security passes to do an impersonation of B.A. from the A Team (come on, you know who he is really)

I started off working in the site and simply talking to the men and women about anything they wanted to talk about. Understand that the chaplaincy role is not about selling religion. It has everything to do with being someone who is 'outside of the organisation' and who will listen to what you have to say.

Question:- So why be someone of 'faith' and be a chaplain, why can't anyone do it?

The answer isn't clear cut, but it has a lot to do with being in a position of trust. Perhaps there a general perception that people with a religious faith can be trusted to do the right thing, and the right thing in chaplaincy roles like this is to listen. Sometimes people just need someone to talk to, to get things off their chest, to sound off. Often in conversation's I've had people are midway through telling me their problem and then its like a light going off in their head and they know what they either need to do, or understand how they can deal with 'the problem'.

So what makes a chaplain different to telling a friend? Well we all need friends, got one or two myself; thing about friends is, they will 99.9% tell you just what you want to hear, or risk not being your friend if they tell you what you don't want to hear. The chaplain isn't going to criticise or condemn or comment on what you say. Just listen. Then there is something chaplains can do to support you, we can ask 'what do you think you can do?'.

I have been with people to speak to their union, or line managers over issues, that's being supportive. Also I have passed on to management the concerns of the workforce over matters of their personal safety and how they have felt that management isn't listening to those concerns.

One example was when in one section of the site a drying room heater had broken and the men were leaving wet outer clothing there to dry, and coming to work the next day and having to start work in wet clothes. Not something I would have wanted, and I'm sure you wouldn't either. Whilst management knew the heater was broken, and had 'put it on the list of things to do', it wasn't getting repaired as a priority. Quietly I pointed out that perhaps it was something they could do quickly to prevent long term sickness and a potential 'site shut down' when the men walked off site in protest. It was repaired that day.

Chaplaincy is a varied role, there isn't any hard and fast rule, except :- we don't sell religion, and we are there to support men and women of all faith's, no faiths, any faiths, any background, and gender, heterosexual, gay or lesbian.

The work site is a tough place to be, I have some serious admiration for the people who work in construction. Just trying to understand the logistics of putting roads in place is mind blowing. You have to decide on how long it will take to dig the road, how deep it has to be, how to put foundations in to hold it up, how to place any appropriate edging on it, what substance to place in the road foundation, how will the concrete be poured, how much will you need, what grade of consistency it has to be, what grade of steel 're-bars' to use as reinforcement, what do do with the spoil, and it all has to be done in order, and flow without stopping. That's just the road you see here going in along the side of the international Euro Rail line from St Pancras to Ebbs Fleet which has a station at Stratford,which you can see in the background.

Then once the decision has been made on all the things to be used in the building of the road, you need the appropriate machines, trained workers and vehicles. Provide the workers with wet weather gear, safety gear, and then make sure they actually wear them (that's another story) you have your work cut out.

Watching the construction take place over the last three years has been a modern equivalent of watching the Pyramids go up. From ground 'empty' to the situation we are at in January 2010 is outstanding in the nature of the amount of people involved and the number of planning applications and the sheer number of decisions which have been made to get to this stage at all. The London 2012 Olympics won't just happen because Seb Coe wants it to, it will happen because of the hard work a great many people have put into it.

Chaplaincy is a very small part of that work and its there to support people across a very wide spectrum of roles, and is doing it as quietly as it can and as much as is wanted by the workforce itself. Believe me, chaplaincy does seem to be very much in demand, I have had to recruit an additional six Assistant Chaplains in the last two years to cope with the problems that people bring to us.

Chaplain for 2012 London Olympic Construction Workers

So it's 2010 and I've been looking for somewhere to write about the most amazing job in the world. And now I've found it I just hope I can keep up the popstings and tell you about the people and the work I come across in my daily role as the Vicar of St Paul's Church Stratford E15 and the Construction Chaplaincy work.

I've been the vicar at St Paul's Stratford for over three years now. The church is sited next to the new Westfield Shopping Centre being built in East London. We are also right on the edge of the Olympic Park and Olympic Athletes Village. The entrance to the site is about 200yards from the front door of the vicarage, so you would think I dont have too far to go to work. well you'd be very wrong, soooo wrong. To get on site I have to catch specificaly appointed transport buses from the appointed bus stations next to Stratford Regional Rail and Underground Station. So walking away from the site catching the bus which passes my house, then takes me a mile further into the security check points is like having a proper job and travelling to work.

I started here in October 2006, and frankly it was a bit boring. We had won the Olympic bid in 2005 and the site in East London had been selected for redevelopment, but nothing much was happening. It was open wasteland.

The picture shows the Stratford International Railway Station to the distant right. Soil from the Eurotunnel link had been drilled out and placed on the land you see in the picture. It raised the land height by 20feet over an area of 400 hectacres (so I'm told, having not measured it myself I am willingto accept these figures)

So when I started on the site there were half a dozen security guards on the main gate 24 staff in the International Station & me. Before the Olympic and Stratford Shopping Centre could begin lots of planning had to take place.

The London Borough of Newham East London, was and is the 4th most economically and socially deprived area in the country, Stratford sits on the edge of the borough and butts onto Tower Hamlets in London which is the 2nd most deprived area in the UK. So it really doesnt look like it has much going for it. There are currently 15000 unemplyed people in Newham. people who have never had a job, people who never want a job, and people who would love a job but have no skills or insufficient education to aid them in getting a job.

The allocation of the Olympics to the London 2012 bid and especially the venues to be built in East London, iniatially raised the hopes and aspirations of the local communities. Jobs for all was the mantra, local expectations at the Buisness Community Forum were that 'local people and buisness' would be first and foremost in line for employment and recieve allocation of contracts from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). Local shops were expecting a boom period, local councillors I spoke to were confident that the Olympic would bring immediate prosperity to the area.

My friends, how sad it has been to see that very little of this has come to fruition. Local buisness has been almost totally excluded from the contracts from the ODA as they quote one source "dont have the expertise to provide the quantites or quality of .........." the open ended sentance is for you to fill in the gaps.

The excitment that I found in the community when I arrived here and the expectations of what the ODA promised soon faded. By August 2008 the local population were still waiting for the 'Olympic Boom' to happen.

St Paul's Stratford Interior

Meanwhile I was also the Vicar of St Paul's Church Maryland Road Stratford E15 and I had work to do there as well. Upon my arival there were only 8 people in the church congregation. It would seem that the previous vicar had left after some madman had come into the church and thretend to shoot him. Well, I know my preaching isnt all that hot (sometimes) but no ones ever threatend to shoot me, so the poor chap left and the congregation just wilted away.



Now we have numbers in the mid 20/30's but its been a big long slog uphill to encourage a community of believers in the church. I am pleased to say they church members are a family and do care about each other.


the building is exceptional and is fast becoming a venue for arts and music concerts so heres a picture to show what we look like from the front.