The Associated Press

DELAWARE, Ohio - Television evangelist Leroy Jenkins has sold his Healing Waters Cathedral and nine-acre complex for $1.3 million to a New Jersey-based Hindu association.

Jenkins is seeking a site in Columbus for a new church. In the meantime, he will conduct services in a Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel in Columbus.

The Leroy Jenkins Evangelical Association has owned the tract for 33 years, including the main auditorium used by Jenkins' ministry, his private residence and a small cottage.

The property will allow members of the Hindu society to follow their requirement that men and women pray separately, said Tom Shelat, who negotiated on behalf of the Yogi Divine Society.

The society has 800 members in Ohio and neighboring states, Shelat said, and the site near Interstates 70 and 71 could attract members from as far as Detroit, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.

The temple will be renamed Y-D-S Hindu Swaminarayan Temple.

Shelat owns the Howard Johnson and offered the temporary lease to Jenkins.

Shelat described the Yogi Divine Society as a 220-year-old religious organization with 300,000 practitioners worldwide.

Members stress vegetarianism, social and moral ethics, and abstinence from tobacco, drugs and alcohol.

Jenkins made several unsuccessful attempts since 1989 to sell the property, 22 miles north of Columbus.