| ELURU,
India (UCAN) -- In a rare gesture of religious amity, a Hindu leader in southern
India invited Christians to place a statue of Jesus in a Hindu temple for 10 days and lead
prayers there. Some 200 people
joined the Feb. 5 and 15 Christian prayer services inside the Sai Baba Mandir (temple) in
Eluru, a town in southern Andhra Pradesh state, some 1,650 kilometers south of New Delhi.
The services were in response to an invitation
extended by temple trustee Subramanyam Swami to Sister Rini Koniri, who organizes programs
for Evangelization 2000 in Eluru diocese.
[...]
At first there were few people, but "as
Bible readings and hymns filled the temple, a large crowd of non-Christians joined
us," said Joseph Cheedi, a member of the Catholic group.
[...]
After the Feb. 5 prayer service, the
temple trustees asked the Catholic group to leave the statue in the temple for 10 days,
and the group "happily agreed," Sister Koniri said.
[...]
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