During the Olympics some of the windows around Morningside in Edinburgh have commemorated Eric Liddell who famously sacrificed his place in the Paris Olympics 100 years ago  because the heats were moved to a Sunday, and he would not run on the Sabbath.  In today’s society it would seem strange to stick to his principles and irrational to give up his very strong chance of a gold medal in the 100m race.  He switched to the 400 metres instead and went on to win Gold in the 400 metres in record breaking time which no British runner has done since.  His race was made famous in the film “Chariots of Fire.”
What is not so well known is the fact that he represented Scotland seven times in rugby and got a science degree then trained in theology and as a teacher before becoming a missionary in China.  There he taught science and maths and sports which helped the children who were interned in a squalid camp by the Japanese in the war.  He was much loved and influential on keeping spirits up despite the dreadful conditions and his faith and passion kept him going.  Unfortunately he died from a brain tumour a few months before the war ended and never saw his third daughter after his wife and family had been sent to her parents in Canada at the start of the war. 
 His legacy lives on through the work of the Eric Liddell Centre just across the road from the church where Eric worshipped as a child during school holidays when he visited family and during his studies in Edinburgh University and Theology College.  As he sometimes preached in the church he would have been surprised that there would eventually be a stained glass window of him racing with a new little peace garden behind where his eldest daughter recently planted a rose to commemorate him.  The E L centre provides help and friendship especially for the lonely and vulnerable but also as a community centre for groups so continuing Eric’s values of care and compassion in the community. Although the world has changed greatly in the last 100 years Eric’s values of compassion and integrity are still very relevant now,
Today Radio 4 “Sunday Worship” came from his former church and there is an exhibition about him in the Scottish Parliament