By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

UNION TOWNSHIP - Next weekend, the Cincinnati Hindu Temple will host a weekend of celebrations marking the completion of the congregation's building.

The more than 2,000 people in Cincinnati who observe Hinduism - what is generally considered the world's oldest major religion with 1.05 billion followers - will celebrate from May 28 to 31 with three ceremonies.

"All three will complete the vision of our founding members in the community. It is coming to a very successful and happy conclusion," said J.K. Bhattacharjee, one of the founding members of the temple.

The Hindu Society of Greater Cincinnati was founded more than 15 years ago and opened the temple seven years ago at 4920 Klatte Road, Union Township, Clermont County.

First, they will observe the Maha Kalash Sthapana, which is the installation of one large pitcher or urn - about 2,500 pounds - at the top of the temple and eight smaller ones. The installation is sacred in Hinduism and similar in significance to putting a cross on the steeple of a Christian church or placing the Torah scrolls in a Jewish synagogue's ark.

"This makes the temple sanctified," said Vijay Sharma, president of the society.

The devotees will also observe Maha Havan, a ritual offering to the fire god to purify and destroy all evils in people's lives.

The temple will also open two additional wings and install four additional deities. In Hinduism, people from different regions of India worship and pray to different deities with the same goal - self-realization.

"We all have the same destination, but in India, each of us have different highways," Bhattacharjee said.

The Temple will add Shri Chitraguptaji, Shri Jagannathiji and Shri Nav Grahaji to the 12 deities already at the temple.

"I don't think you will find so many deities anywhere in the world in one chapel," Sharma said.

Bhattacharjee said the installation of the new deities and the existing 12 is a testament to the Temple's emphasis on inclusion of all religions - those with Indian origins and others.

"People of any background, any religion, any age, any culture, can go to this beautiful place, sit and meditate and pray and have help from the priests if they need it," he said.

And while India itself tends to be a religiously tolerant nation - recent democratic elections brought to power a party led by a Roman Catholic-born woman, a Sikh prime minister and a Muslim president in the country with a more than 80 percent Hindu population - Hindus do not usually worship together.

"In India we could not accomplish this (the diversity of deities in one temple) because we believe so strongly in the individual deities in various regions. But we have broken down those barriers," Bhattacharjee said. "From day one, we wanted our temple to represent all of India."

The temple, which has four resident priests, is host to regular services Sundays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., hosts smaller groups during the week and is open daily for individual prayer and mediation. For more information about Cincinnati Hindu Temple or the weekend's festivities, call the temple at 528-3714.

Deacons to be ordained

Bishop Herbert Thompson Jr. of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio will ordain four people to be transitional deacons - the last step before priesthood - at a ceremony today at 11 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral, 318 E. Fourth St., downtown.

The four have or are in the process of earning their master's of divinity degrees and are likely to become Episcopal priests in the next year.

Two of the four are from Cincinnati: Carolyn Keck, 52, who is sponsored by St. James in Westwood, and will serve two churches in Columbus this summer; and Jeff Queen, 31, the lay vicar and church planter of St. Mary Magdalene in Maineville.

To submit religion news, e-mail kvance@fuse.net or send a fax to 755-4150.