Source: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2477689.cms
While the Anglican Church may shun Yoga, in Kerala the Syro-Malabar church - regarded as the oldest in the country - has decided to embrace the Hindu tradition of sanyas. This and other cultural aspects like bhajans are becoming a part of new curriculum for training the Christian clergy in the church.
‘‘Priests have to work in the Indian milieu. So it’s necessary that they learn about India’s strong spiritual foundations like the Gurukul system, Sanyas, and Varnashram’’ church spokesman Paul Thelekat told TOI. The curriculum, which is called the ‘Charter for priestly formation in the Syro-Malabar church’, has been reformed and promulgated and is going to be applied in every seminary, he said.
‘‘We were taught the basics of Indian philosophical systems as part of theory,’’ says Thelekat, but now there’s focus on practical learning.