After nine years with no permanent place to call its own, Morgantown's Hindu community will open its new temple this weekend.
The Hindu Religious and Cultural Center of Morgantown will officially open its new location at 137 Bakers Ridge Road.
"It's a very nice location," said Chetan Desai, president of the HRCC. "[It's] in Morgantown but it's still a scenic place," he said. The new building is 5,400 square feet and has three acres of land, he said.
The HRCC was established in Morgantown in 2007 as a way to connect members of the Hindu community. It was established as a place of worship in 2009. All that time, the community has either been in rented places or it has been without a place at all, Desai said.
The first rented space was a two-bedroom apartment, and the most recent was a commercial space at a strip mall, Desai said.
The community is made up of about 500 families in a 30- to 40-mile radius to Morgantown, he said.
The temple is open Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings for prayer. There's also a Sunday school for children.
To celebrate the temple's opening, the HRCC will have three events this weekend. There will be a religious ceremony this morning to establish the new place of worship and a 6 p.m. musical event, which will feature local talent, he said. Everyone is welcome, he said. Events on Sunday will start at 10 a.m. and continue through 8:30 p.m. There will be activities for children from 3 to 5 p.m.
For more information, see the HRCC's website, http://www.hrccmorgantown.org/.