With our new logo, we try to emulate the integratedness of both Christianity and Yoga:

The person sitting in lotus (yoga) with arms raised to the heavens in prayer (Christianity). The raised arms indicate a more active body—the practice of embodied devotion. The raised arms also emphasize the vertical dimension that Christians experience in meditation. 

The labyrinth is a tool used by most religious traditions. It is a tool used by Christians and yogis alike—the Chartes Cathedral in Europe even has a labyrinth embedded into its architecture. We chose the labyrinth as a symbol of transformation, an embodied symbol of CPY’s vision.

The transformed person is inside the heart of the labyrinth—inside the heart of God, held there or found there, however the metaphor strikes you.

The labyrinth also holds two invitations. One, to go inward, into the secret room to pray, to come and rest. Two, to return to the world, to action, to be a presence.

In some renditions of our logo, the labyrinth is flanked by tiny open books punctuating the words The “Christians Practicing Yoga.” We wanted to incorporate an image of a book because we are a pretty intellectual group (as indicated by the verb “studies” in our mission), and also we are rooted in the Word of God, and in a way following Jñana Yoga, the path of study. Studying the intersections of Christianity and yoga, especially as many of us do for much of our careers as yoga teachers and scholars, IS a yoga. 

We had started out by searching for a “Christian” image and  “yoga” image to pull together, and instead we found images that integrate the two—just as our organization does.