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Manchester United chaplain, Rev John Boyers writes in match day programme

added 14th April 2010

"This extract from the Manchester United  v Liverpool programme of 20 March 2010 is reproduced here on the SCORE website with permission of Haymarket Publications, who own the copyright of this material. No part of this extract may be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the explicit permission of Haymarket Publications.

Manchester United club chaplain Rev. John Boyers recently enjoyed a trip to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  Here he gives the inside view of his role in the sports world.

I became the Old Trafford chaplain in 1992, joining from Watford FC, where I'd worked since 1977. United had approached me prior to that, but my local church role made a move to the North-west impossible. A few years later United asked me again and by this point I'd left my normal church role and set up the charity SCORE to develop chaplaincy work in sport. So my wife and I moved to Sale and my time as a Red began.

With 30 years' experience in sports chaplaincy under my belt, including involvement in major sporting events, such as the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the 2004 Olympics and Paralympics in Athens, I was asked if I would serve as a chaplain at the Winter Games in Vancouver. The Olympic movement requires that local organising committees provide for the spiritual and pastoral needs of the athletes.

The chaplaincy teams involved - I led the one in the athletes' village in Vancouver where inside-stadium events took place - represent the five major religions and cater for other beliefs as well. There were about 40 chaplains serving around 4,500 athletes. I was the only UK representative there, so it was a great privilege to be invited.

Everyone worked very well together, and the general role is to help and support people in the faith tradition they come from. But as a Christian minister I was able to make a particular contribution to the daily Christian activities by leading worship, prayers and Bible study. We also dealt with individual enquiries and tried to be a friendly positive presence around the place.

Unfortunately, there were two very tragic incidents that required our response. The first, before the games started, was the death of Georgian luge Olympian Nodar Kumaritashvili in training, and then during the games the mother of Canadian ice-dancer Joannie Rochette died from a heart attack. She had recently arrived from Quebec with her husband to watch her daughter compete.

Sadly, life is not always easy and sometimes when tragedy strikes, the spiritual side of life reveals its true importance. But as well as ‘weeping with those who weep', we also ‘rejoice with those who rejoice'.

I was visiting the Team GB headquarters one day when Amy Williams was on her third skeleton run of four and which took her into the lead in the competition. The team urged me to return to watch the final run with them, and there was much rejoicing over her victory and that amazing gold medal.

I also came across some big United supporters during my trip - some among Team GB and some Canadians. My club coat was a real conversation starter, and a couple of Team GB's support staff knew members of United's coaching team. Even without my coat as soon as people found out where I came from they began talking about ‘that great team, Manchester United'. I'm glad people enjoy following the club, but I think there's someone to follow who really is out of this world.

To find out more about sports chaplaincy, visit the SCORE website: www.scorechaplaincy.org.uk or write to me, Rev.John, at the club.

SCORE have repoduced this article with the very kind permission of Haymarket Publications and is subject to their copyright and cannot be further produced in any form without their express permission. 

View article as printed in the matchday programme, click now.

This article is copyright to Haymarket Publications, and cannot be reproduced in any form without their express permission, which has been given for display on the SCORE website. 

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