Hindu Group Shares Space with Episcopal Church in Florida

June 29, 2002

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On June 29, 2002 the St. Petersburg Times reported that "in the classrooms of a small Episcopal church... Hindu members of the Swadhyaya movement (pronounced Swad-HI-ya), a sect little more than 50 years old... chant and study... The arrangement is treated with aplomb by the two vastly different religious communities... The St. Petersburg Swadhyayees have met since the late 1980s. The group, one of 350 in the United States, started with two people. Today there are 50 families, which include many children. Members come from throughout Pinellas County, [Florida] and most trace their roots to the midwestern Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra."