Scottish Catholic Observer

The mass took place at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark and was presided by Archbishop Peter Smith and fellow London Bishops Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood.

The mass featured the Dockhead Choir made up from children who sing at Most Holy Trinity Parish in Dockhead and St William of York Parish in Forest Hill, who reprised their version of Jerusalem in the same costumes worn at the Opening Ceremony.

“Being a part of the Mass in thanksgiving for the Paralympic Games is equally as great an honour for us all as being the first voices to be heard at the opening of the 30th Olympiad”, Canon Maclean said on behalf of the Choir. “Singing in worship of God is what the choir does best”.

The message of the Mass was that ‘everyone has a place’ within the Church, and was the same theme as the Church’s recent international one-day conference in London on disability and sport.

James Parker, Catholic Executive Coordinator for the 2012 Games, said the deliberate decision had been taken to make the Mass open to anyone who wishes to attend.

“We hope that Paralympians both past and present, whether Catholic, Christian, or of any faith and none, will come to hear of the Mass and choose to join the hundreds of others who will be present,” Mr Parker, Catholic Executive Coordinator for London 2012, said.  ”We want to celebrate and give thanks to God for the preciousness and potential that lies within each and every life, particularly for how these are manifest within the domain of sport.”