On a sunny winter morning at Carmel Presbyterian Church, eight women and their instructor pose on their yoga mats in squares of light that pour from surrounding windows. The walls are bare, except for a wooden cross.

At intervals through the hour, leader Kristine Reynolds plays snatches of contemporary Christian music or stops to read from the Bible. God sees you today, he knows you by name, she tells the women, as they reach and stretch. His love for you is more wonderful than you can imagine.

This is Holy Yoga, a Christian approach to yoga thats gaining popularity throughout the United States and across the Charlotte region from Concord to Waxhaw.

Jill Archer, 59, a member of the Church of Charlotte, regularly attends Reynolds gentle-level Holy Yoga class at Carmel Presbyterian. Since she started coming in September, shes invited five or six people to check out the class, too. Its just a fun, relaxing time, and its worshipful, she says.

In the Word, it says, Be still and know I am God, says Reynolds, 47. I think theres a lot of Christians out there that are busy, busy, busy. Their lives are spiraling out of control.

Holy Yoga offers an opportunity to get off the merry-go-round of life and just be still.

Holy Yoga, founded in 2005 in Phoenix by nondenominational Christian and yoga teacher Brooke Boon, encourages its instructors to teach in their native language rather than using Sanskrit terms.

Instead of saying, Namaste, we say, The light of Christ in me honors the light of Christ in you, says Reynolds.

Holy Yoga teachers take at least 200 hours of training. This includes standard instruction in how to cue yoga poses, in alignment and breath, as well as studies in Christian Scriptures.

Between 15 million and 20 million people practice yoga in this country, according to Gyandev McCord, author of the forthcoming book Spiritual Yoga and cofounder of Yoga Alliance, an organization created 14 years ago to ensure quality and consistency of instruction for yoga teachers in the United States.

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Christian yoga comes to Charlotte