Hindus welcome interfaith Prayer Room at Alvernia University in Pennsylvania

Hindus have welcomed launching of interfaith “Prayer and Reflection Room” (PARR) at the “distinctive Franciscan” Alvernia University (AU) headquartered in Reading (Pennsylvania).

 

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that an interfaith “intimate space” provided by PARR was a step in the positive direction for AU for quiet reflection and spiritual exercise.

 

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, hoped that the presence of interfaith prayer/reflection space in the shape of PARR would help the AU students to have a spiritually meaningful life in addition to material success after they graduated from the university.  

 

Moreover, with the interfaith dialogue resulting from gatherings at PARR would make AU students well-nurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow. It also made a good business sense to know the beliefs of “others” in a global community. Moreover, students should have knowledge of the entire society to become full participants in the society, Rajan Zed pointed out.

 

Thanking AU for recognizing the intersection of spirituality and education, Zed urged AU President Dr. Thomas F. Flynn to provide, besides other religions, resources and objects about Hinduism in this Room and organize Hindu prayer sessions at regular intervals.

 

One of the top “character-building” colleges; AU, founded in 1958 by the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters, is guided by Franciscan values and is rooted in the Catholic traditions whose graduates claimed to “do well, and do good". In addition to over 50 undergraduate majors/minors, it provides range of graduate programs in a scenic 121-acre suburban campus to over 3,000 students.