Buono, a retired therapist and public school principal, says he decided to become a priest because he wanted to exert his energy in a meaningful, spiritual way after his wife died. And while he liked dating, he did not want to remarry.

A German court has ruled that the country's constitution does not allow it to block visits from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the head of the Unification Church. The ruling reflects a general softening of bans—if not public sympathies—toward religions seen as "fringe" in Germany. Berlin, for example, recently was required to grant official recognition to Jehovah's Witnesses.

"BBT is a worldwide entity with offices in five countries," said Jayadvaita Swami, one of seven BBT International trustees. "We meet several times a year and are in constant touch on email, but we still felt the need for training to better respond to the needs of our constituents and help us be a more effective team."

I started part two of CanWalk Number Three noticing the pool of blood.This is what the highway is—a place of living and moving travel but it is also a place of standstill, of frozenness and death. I am so impactfully reminded of this on this first day.

"This is what's happening today. This is the reality. It is the wave of the future," said Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Metuchen Diocese, which is building the crematory. "We're going along with what our Catholic population is looking for."

The walk begins each day at 4 or 5 a.m., and Swami spends about nine hours walking 45 kilometres per day. He carries with him a sack holding his meditation beads, and often chants and talks to the Creator along the way.

The personable monk, who joined the Hare Krishna movement in 1973 and changed his name from John Vis, said he runs into a lot of cyclists and marathon runners, along with regular citizens curious about his exploits.

“Walking in the summer, it‘s when people are out and about,” he said.

“It‘s the real natural time to be there, and the really big part of this project is to meet people and get inspired . . . and to inspire.”

The ISKCON Child Protection Office held a three-day child abuse safety training program the first week in May in New Vrindavana. Seven devotees, including teachers, Sunday School teachers and social workers, attended the training.

The North American Grihastha Vision Team (GVT) held their annual meeting in Prabhupada Village, North Carolina, the last week of April. The 12-person team reviewed their year’s accomplishments and planned for the coming year. The future plans include rolling out a new schedule for the four-day VTE Grihastha Training Course, “Strengthening the Bonds that Free Us.”

Ravindra Svarupa Dasa addresses charges of 'centralization' in ISKCON in regard to the proposed new bylaws drafted for North American ISKCON temples at a meeting of ISKCON’s North American leadership on May 17, 2007 in Houston, Texas. "Various areas of misunderstanding and forgetfulness," he says, mark the opposition to the proposed bylaws in regard to the workings of management of ISKCON and its structure. Drawing on facts from a 1972 attempt at centralization, Ravindra Svarupa Dasa outlines how the current proposal differs, and how it is in fact in line with the original management structure established by ISKCON's founder-acharya.

The Hare Krishna Movement: Forty Years of Chant and Change examines the changes and developments which have shaped ISKCON in the past 40 years. In essays by both leading ISKCON devotees and scholars of religion, it tracks ISKCON's history through a wide range of issues and themes, including the movement's own evolving self-perception.

On May 26 the temple room of ISKCON Vancouver will be transformed into a sacred grove resembling Vrindavana, Lord Krishna's abode, as devotees celebrate the Maha Tulsi Puja Festival, or the "great Tulasi worship festival."

Chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna," hundreds of believers of the Hindu sect dragged a crimson 30-foot-high chariot cloaked in sunflowers, carnations and roses. Wrapped in colorful clothing, they marched down Light Street yesterday afternoon and ended in the Inner Harbor, stalling traffic and drawing curious stares.

More than thirty temple presidents, and a handful of Governing Body Commissioners, representing North American chapters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) gathered here on May 17 to kick off a three-day regional meeting. Organizers of the meeting hope to bring together the two facets of ISKCON's leadership in order to foster greater accountability and cooperation, and explicitly address the need for a balance of power.

Enthusiasm seemed to float on the air—along with the yellow clay dust of the western world's most famous Hindu pilgrimage site—as devotees arrived by the car- and busload for a three-day weekend of Krishna conscious education, enlightenment, and good times.

Another thirteen community houses are under the threat of being demolished and the Supreme Court ruling makes it possible for the authorities to confiscate the 116 acres of land at any moment.

The IHF and HRWF urge the Kazakh authorities to strictly abide by the international human rights standards the country has committed itself to and to take all available measures to solve the case of the Hare Krishna community in a peaceful, fair and unbiased manner.