A Devon yoga teacher says she was “very surprised” to be told she could not use a local church hall for classes due to religious reasons.
Yoga teacher Atsuko Kato, 54, said she was told that yoga was “not compatible with Christian beliefs”.
Atsuko, who has been teaching yoga for 25 years – including one class attended by a local vicar – says she doesn’t understand why it is an issue.
But the church at the centre of the row says yoga cannot be allowed because it does not acknowledge that “there is only one God and that…Jesus Christ is God himself”.
Yoga originated in Northern India and has connections to both Hinduism and Buddhism.