wfn.org | No Olympic gold for Presbyterians

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Note #7006 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

09-January-2002
02018

No Olympic gold for Presbyterians 

Time ran out on plan to build hospitality center for Winter Games

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Shortages of time and money forced organizers to abandon a plan
to build a Presbyterian Welcome Center in Salt Lake City, UT, for next
month's 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

The idea was to provide a worship, hospitality and information center for
visitors from around the world, a Presbyterian-Reformed presence at an
Olympic venue in the heart of Mormon country.

Officials hoped to break ground at a Park City site in June 2000 and finish
building the center last summer, in plenty of time for the 17 days of Winter
Games, which begin on Feb. 8. However, difficulties in raising the $2
million to $7 million cost of the facility forced planners to scale the
project back, then drop the idea altogether.

"We scrapped the project because it was just too much money and not enough
time," said the Rev. Robert L. Sheldon, mission development director for the
Synod of the Rocky Mountains, which was to be one of three welcome-center
sponsors. "We had a year and a half to raise $7 million without any kind of
(process) in place. It was just impossible. It was just too much."

Original plans called for the Welcome Center to serve as a respite from the
Games, with big-screen televisions broadcasting Olympic events and other
programming including Bible lessons, religious music, worship in a
10,000-square-foot sanctuary and multimedia presentations on Presbyterian
missions.

Summit Presbyterian Church of Park City, UT, a recently chartered church
that was to be a project co-sponsor, had hoped to make the new center its
home when the Olympics ended. Planners also thought it might serve as a
retreat/conference center for the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Sheldon, who said he knew from the outset that the Olympic project was a
"long shot," expressed gratitude for Presbyterians' efforts to make the
Welcome Center a reality.

"People said, 'It's insane,' and 'It won't work' - but try it anyway," he
added.

Presbyterian congregations in the Salt Lake City area will be "welcoming the
world into our worship services," said the Rev. Marvin L. Groote, executive
presbyter of the Presbytery of Utah.

Referring to the Welcome Center project, Groote said: "The timing was such
that we didn't have the time to make it work. We put a good effort forward,
but it just wasn't there."
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