September (Web-only) 2000

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Prominent German sportsmen and women have contributed to a special "sports Bible" that is being distributed to all German-speaking athletes at the Olympic Games in Sydney. The book of Scripture, Das Leben Gewinnen (Win Life!), contains the German-language Good News version of the New Testament, along with testimonies by sportsmen and women. It also contains an index of biblical quotations using sporting metaphors, such as a citation from the First Letter to the Corinthians 9:24-27: "Surely you know that many runners take part in a race, but only one of them wins the prize. … Every athlete in training submits to strict discipline, in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last; but we do it for one that will last for ever."The book is the brainchild of Klaus-Peter Weinhold, a sports chaplain who ministers to athletes on behalf of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Germany's main Protestant body. It has been specially produced to mark this year's Olympics, but Weinhold also intends to use it for other sports gatherings."A lot is expected of athletes," Weinhold told ENI before he left Germany for Sydney last week with his Roman Catholic colleague, Michael Kuehn. In Sydney they are joining pastors and ministers from all over the world at the Olympic religious center which will provide assistance and pastoral care to Olympic participants.Ten thousand copies of the book, which has 608 pages of biblical text and 32 pages of testimonies, including photos of the athletes, have been produced by the German Bible Society; 1,600 copies have been bought by the EKD and the German Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference for distribution in Sydney.Weinhold, a former member of Germany's national volleyball team, understands the ...