Exercise at a parish

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TwinMommy

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On my search for a parish(going tonight for the first time at my top pick) I noticed that some will have yoga and zumba. That just strikes me as very strange. Is this a common thing?
 
Let me be the first…

The sky has fallen, life as we know will cease to exist 🍿
 
Exactly!!

Many churches hire out their space (church hall) to other groups.

Zumba, as far as I know is strenuous dance moves.

Yoga can be done as purely physical exercises without any of the yoga meditation. If there is yoga meditation involved, it is out of bounds for Catholics. If it is just exercises, no problem - although many can ‘prove’ otherwise. Personally, I do yoga in my living room with the aid of my WiiFit. I have a colleague who trained in yoga in India - no way will I attend her yoga classes, also because I have heard her admit that she “does not know what she believes”.

And now the sky is going to fall. Just search here on CAF for yoga and you’ll see it.
 
Actually, I do think it is a bit strange. Not that yoga causes the sky to fall :D, but that a parish would regularly rent out their parish hall or other facilities for something like that. I am not aware of any parish around here that does that.

All that said, I can see how a woman’s group at a parish might organize an exercise class for themselves, but I wouldn’t expect to see it advertised outside of whatever else that group does (rosary, parenting classes, meal for funerals, whatever).
 
We at one time had a member of our parish who led free yoga exercise in the parish hall.

It never caught on, but in my parish, other than social dinners, few things catch on.

Jim
 
TwinMommy said:
On my search for a parish(going tonight for the first time at my top pick) I noticed that some will have yoga and zumba. That just strikes me as very strange. Is this a common thing?
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I have seen exercise classes at Protestant churches but never at a Catholic parish.

I take zumba classes and yoga classes at a local gym. The zumba is a lot of fast movements to fun music. The yoga is a stretch class. There are no “yoga spiritual” parts, just stretches using every day language and names of poses like “child’s pose” or “cobra”. I had friends who took a yoga class from a priest for health benefits. I assume his class was like the stretch class I take.
 
TwinMommy said:
On my search for a parish(going tonight for the first time at my top pick) I noticed that some will have yoga and zumba. That just strikes me as very strange. Is this a common thing?
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All it indicates is that the parish is short of cash and needs to rent out rooms during the week to make ends meet.
 
TwinMommy, first please disregard the rude responses with popcorn. I guess they’ve never been a newbie anywhere. (That’ll probably get me in trouble with the mods :rolleyes:)

Our parish has line dancing on Thursday evenings and bridge at other times. In addition, there is a book club that meets periodically. They don’t “rent out” the spaces, they simply host the events in either the parish life center or the school gymnasium. So don’t be surprised at those kind of things going on in the parish as it does encourage folks getting to know one another.
 
Hoo(name removed by moderator)mie said:
TwinMommy, first please disregard the rude responses with popcorn. I guess they’ve never been a newbie anywhere. (That’ll probably get me in trouble with the mods :rolleyes:)
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Nah, usually takes more than that to get their attention. I can assure you I have been ruder than you so far, but just to posters that haven’t made it to this thread yet. 😛

I do wonder where the dive bombers are, though. Surely we can’t have intimidated them. Maybe they are all focused on another job before they get to this thread. TwinMommy, in case you haven’t figured it out, we are talking about the usually obligatory warnings that by going anywhere within 2000 feet of a yoga practitioner you will be sucked into the occult like a large vacuum cleaner. New Age, eastern, democrat, you may become any or all of the above. Hence the Chicken Little reference. 😃
Our parish has line dancing on Thursday evenings and bridge at other times. In addition, there is a book club that meets periodically. They don’t “rent out” the spaces, they simply host the events in either the parish life center or the school gymnasium. So don’t be surprised at those kind of things going on in the parish as it does encourage folks getting to know one another.
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👍
 
Hoo(name removed by moderator)mie said:
TwinMommy, first please disregard the rude responses with popcorn. I guess they’ve never been a newbie anywhere. (That’ll probably get me in trouble with the mods :rolleyes:)

Our parish has line dancing on Thursday evenings and bridge at other times. In addition, there is a book club that meets periodically. They don’t “rent out” the spaces, they simply host the events in either the parish life center or the school gymnasium. So don’t be surprised at those kind of things going on in the parish as it does encourage folks getting to know one another.
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I will only speak for myself:

I was not being rude (trust me, when I’m rude you’ll know it), but it is an observation of what usually happens on this forum – there are certain words and phrases that bring out what Alan from Wichita commented about – warnings that anything that is remotely not related to Catholicism, like yoga for exercise purposes, will suck you into the dark vortex of the nether world and that you will never escape and your soul is damned. Today it’s yoga, yesterday it was rock music, and tomorrow it will be something else.

The popcorn symbol is that the response is usually like Pavlov’s dog salivating at the sound of the bell. Sometimes all you can do is watch it, but you can’t really turn away, like a train wreck.

To TwinMommy: In short as others have said, if it is purely exercise classes, there is nothing to worry about. Maybe they’re trying to counteract all the carbs and calories from those church dinners
 
Hoo(name removed by moderator)mie said:
TwinMommy, first please disregard the rude responses with popcorn. I guess they’ve never been a newbie anywhere. (That’ll probably get me in trouble with the mods :rolleyes:)

Our parish has line dancing on Thursday evenings and bridge at other times. In addition, there is a book club that meets periodically. They don’t “rent out” the spaces, they simply host the events in either the parish life center or the school gymnasium. So don’t be surprised at those kind of things going on in the parish as it does encourage folks getting to know one another.
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I have been a newbie plainy of places, like here 1600 posts ago. 😃 😛

I do have some extra popcorn for the both of you:

🍿🍿🍿🍿 (I am in real trouble now!)
 
jmcrae said:
I don’t think any parish priest is putting on such classes for having nothing better to do. 🙂
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We are allowed to use our parish hall without cost.

It’s part of belonging to the parish.

When a certain parishioner was holding yoga exercise classes, she was not charged for it, nor did she charge for the class.

It may be the case with the OP. No mention of anyone renting the room.

Jim
 
jmcrae said:
All it indicates is that the parish is short of cash and needs to rent out rooms during the week to make ends meet.
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JimR-OCDS said:
We are allowed to use our parish hall without cost.

It’s part of belonging to the parish.

When a certain parishioner was holding yoga exercise classes, she was not charged for it, nor did she charge for the class.

It may be the case with the OP. No mention of anyone renting the room.

Jim
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In my years as a secretary/administrator at my church we had both situations in respect of our hall: a parishioner offered aerobics classes, no charge to her, when she handed the classes to a non-parishioner we levied a small fee; ballet classes, non-parishioner offering, she paid; AA meetings, we didn’t charge; Blood Transfusion services for regular blood donor clinics, no charge; parishioners were charged a small fee for use of the hall for private social events; non-parishioners could also hire the hall at a ‘going rate’.
 
Ours doesn’t offer exercise classes, but I don’t see a problem with it. I think some people get way to uptight about Yoga being “against our faith”. Most Yoga I’ve attended is purely exercise and any meditation I’ve run across is silent, so a Catholic can pray in a Catholic way.
 
We have both offered at our parish as exercise classes. Nobody charges for the use of the space. It is quite common around here, and yes, it is possible to do yoga exercises without the accompanying eastern meditation.

Our parish does charge, though, for the rental of it’s spaces for private functions such as showers, wedding receptions, private parties, etc.
 
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