The Invictus Games was set up for war veterans as a Paralympic-style sports event for the injured and includes events such as wheelchair basketball.
Mary, one of the two chaplains sent there from the UK, has experience in sports chaplaincy and her colleague has military chaplaincy experience. She said being chaplains there has its differences but nothing they can't handle: "We are chaplains back in the UK so in a sense this is the same job transferred to another context but obviously Invictus is very specific".
When asked how the role is different, Mary said: "it'd be no use planning worship with lots of unexplained, sudden loud noises because you have to be very aware of that in this environment...that kind of thing can set someone off who's got PTSD or bad memories from the battlefield. And [it's a case of] always having to think 'accessible'...there are competitors here who are visually impaired so it means so you can't just produce a service sheet. It's full of challenges but not unexpected challenges".
Regarding what the chaplains do while they are there, she explained: "There's always one chaplain around from 7:30 until 10 at night. People drop by. Sometimes they just want to chat about the weather...but sometimes they come and chat about really deep things, sometimes connected to their past service and injury. As with all chaplaincy, you never know what somebody is going to talk about to you about".
"With the competitive [people] in any sports event there's the question about achievement...but here some of the competitors are overcoming huge obstacles even to have got here, so sometimes the competition doesn't look and competitive as in the Olympics but a lot of these athletes are competing against themselves and the injured state they were once in and sometimes still are".
A number of athletes have said during their rehab they were encouraged to connect with their spiritual side, not necessarily their religious side but they do want to come and talk about life, the world, the universe and what that means to them".