The first ever Hindu invocation in the Michigan Legislature was delivered Tuesday afternoon by a Grand Rapids minister who hopes his message of peace can help encourage civility and collaboration.
Fred Stella, 63, the pracharak, or outreach minister, at the West Michigan Hindu Temple in Ada, opened the State House this afternoon by quoting from Hindu scriptures.
“I’m excited to be able to do this because it’s just one more way the Hindu community is being represented in a mainstream context,” Stella said.
“We identify as people who are patriotic, who appreciate our democratic systems, and feel that we need to be part of the scene, and so this is one way of doing it.”
Stella said he’s “someone who believes in a separation of church and state,” but since there’s a tradition of clergy giving an invocation in the State House, he says “it should be be as broad and diverse as possible.”
There have been Christian, Jewish, and Muslim invocations before in the Michigan State House. And there have been Hindu invocations in the U.S. House of Representatives, but none in the State House until Tuesday.
Tuesday’s invocation comes as the Hindu population increases in Michigan, with about 30 Hindu temples and centers in the state. According to the U.S. Census, there are more than 112,000 Indian-Americans in Michigan, many of them Hindu. There are also Hindus in Michigan rooted in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other countries. And there are those like Stella, raised Catholic, who came into Hinduism later in their lives.
For the full article see Niraj Warikoo, “Hindu invocation delivered for first time in Mich. Legislature“, Detroit Free Press, June 5, 2018.