In a shocking development from the UK, St. Andrew’s in Dibden won’t allow an elderly grandmother to teach yoga on its premises on the grounds that yoga has its roots in Hinduism.
What is the matter with this church, one wonders? Where is its sense of inclusion, of diversity, of being “spiritual but not religious”, of there being many ways to the Father? Entirely absent, it seems: if I lived in Dibden, I would attend St. Andrew’s.
From here:
THE Anglican Church has been dragged into the yoga controversy – by banning an 81-year- old Christian fitness instructor from holding classes at a Hampshire church hall.
Despite being retired for more than 20 years, Eileen Meegan tirelessly teaches yoga for four hours a week – making sure pensioners socialise, keep supple and are de-stressed.
But the Daily Echo can today reveal that St Andrew’s C of E Church in Dibden Purlieu has banned her classes from its premises.
It joins the Roman Catholic St Edmund’s Church in Southampton which banned yoga teacher Cori Withell from its hall, saying her classes were not compatible with the Catholic faith.
I applaud this decision by St. Andrews and am pleasantly surprised. When I used to attend an Anglican/United Church of Canada shared ministry church, there was no problem with hosting and participating in a Reiki training workshop. No warnings from our “pastor” who was more than willing to participate in the workshop. No thoughts of “is this something we should be participating in from our board members”,myself included. We thought we were pretty progressive, but I’m sure God thought otherwise as He watched us continue down that road to apostasy for several years. The church closed three years ago and the remaining few members at that time are not attending church anywhere else. (I left 5 yrs ago for a bible believing church and actually got saved when I heard the gospel)
Yoga is a spiritual/New Age hindu practice. There is no such thing as “Christian Yoga”. People who practice yoga are opening themselves up to the demonic realm. I wish more Christians were aware of this.
Wow, Christians who uphold Christianity! I began wondering years ago about all of the Yoga and other Eastern/New Age nonsense in church groups. Such people are unwittingly propagating the worldviews that tear down their own faith and culture. It’s not just another exercise class for seniors, though you get rolled eyes when you try to point this out.
I sat back and waited for the other shoe to drop, which it is now doing.
This practice seems to have started with the Beatles and their “progressive” guru style, back in the 60s (when else?), and then grew to be the fashion for those who wanted to show how hip they are, Christian parishes included.
Just one more thought here on this topic.
I feel about yoga (or any Eastern/New Age practice) in Christian parishes the same way I feel about adult bank employees dressing-up in costume on Oct. 31 — the practice is antithetical to the supposed values of the institution in which it is being carried out. Adult employees in cartoonish outfits, who are supposed to be handling the customers’ financial needs, make a farce of professionalism.
Likewise, leisure-time instructors, given permission to use the premises of a Christian parish to spread the purported wonders of Hindu/Buddhist spiritual disciplines (even if the takers think these are simply stretching exercises), make a farce of Christianity’s assertions that it is the one true path to enlightenment and Godliness.
Such ideas grow and swell. I remember attending a Catholic parish a long while ago, holding Sunday Mass out of the gym of a provincially-funded Catholic high school, in Ontario. The parish priest took to the podium before the start, with a few practical announcements, including the fact that the parish was very fortunate to have secured this gym venue for another six weeks while they were building their own church. Apparently, they had been in line for use of the gym behind a dog-training class that had also requested it, but the dog-training class had had to cancel for some reason, so the local Catholic parish got it only by being next in line.
I sat there thinking, “My God, the early Christians risked torture and death to hold a worship service, often in the catacombs. Here, these parishioners put such low value on holding their Mass that they are convinced a dog-training session has more right to a Catholic school gym on a Sunday morning than the priest does for this service.” All in the name of that new religious virtue of inclusiveness, I suppose, which apparently stands above all else.
Thank you for some sanity in the above replies. Every Anglican (and Christian) church ought to read this – too many are squandering their pearls before – well, you know the rest.
And while yoga (and tai chi and judo and karate etc) are called New Age/Eastern practices, they are really New Age and Eastern (i.e. not Christian) prayer. The movements done by the body are the prayer to the deity, regardless of what a person might be thinking with their brain.