Henham, Elsenham, & Ugley Churches
|
Henham, Elsenham, & Ugley Churches |
|
Residents of Henham may have been surprised to pick up their newspapers on Wednesday and see on the front page (just below the stories of war and murder) an item about their own village: ‘Vicar’s yoga position: Not in my church hall’, said the Telegraph, whilst the Times ran with, ‘Vicar in a twist over yoga in church hall’.
As the day wore on, so the story grew. The Revd Dick Farr was interviewed on (amongst others) Radio Essex, Radio 4, Anglia TV and GMTV, as well as turning down requests from the Jimmy Young programme and Radio 5 Live!
But was it worth the fuss? Many people thought not. In their view, yoga is just a harmless form of exercise. Others felt it showed an intolerant attitude towards other religious views. Howard Kent from the Yoga for Health Foundation was quoted in the Times as saying, “Yoga does involve an approach to life but it is not one that in any way interferes with Christian teaching.”
So why wasn’t the booking for the yoga class renewed (the form that the so-called ‘ban’ actually took)?
Much of what is called ‘yoga’ is indeed little more than relaxation, breathing and stretching exercises, and there is, of course, nothing wrong with these things in themselves. As Dick Farr pointed out, the church has a running club, and many of the runners do stretching exercises! Health and fitness are good things to aim for. But serious yoga is concerned with the spirit as well as with the mind and body. As Howard Kent himself said, “yoga is spiritual”. And a popular website on yoga says, “Yoga is a system of physical, mental and spiritual development”.
The more seriously yoga is taken, the more significant the spiritual side becomes. Indeed, for those who take yoga really seriously, the exercises are only a means to an end, not an end in themselves. The true goal of real yoga is spiritual development, not physical suppleness. In fact yoga without the spirituality is a Westernized invention which doesn’t really deserve the title ‘yoga’. It would be more helpful to describe this as ‘Relaxation Exercises’. Calling this sort of exercise ‘yoga’ makes it sound like something it really isn’t.
However, the spirituality of serious yoga is definitely not the same as that of Christianity. True yoga is ultimately about spiritual self-improvement leading to mystical union with the spiritual ‘other’. Christian spirituality also involves a spiritual union, but it is union with Christ, who was born and lived among us as the man, Jesus of Nazareth. And this union not achieved by our own spiritual efforts but by a simple acceptance of what he did for us in dying on a cross, resulting in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives and a constant daily and hourly trust in God.
Christian spirituality and the spirituality of yoga therefore require quite different things of people and ultimately lead them to quite different understandings and experiences of God. Of course, there are many for whom ‘yoga’ means nothing more than exercises which help them relax and become more supple. But real yoga is a serious spiritual practice with a long history and tradition. On balance, therefore, it was felt that having ‘yoga’ of any kind advertised as an activity in the church hall was unhelpful and misleading, especially given that the church is here to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ, who said before his crucifixion, “No one comes to the Father except by me”.
Last updated 26th November, 2001