Chapel 2025: Planning for the Future

Growth of Self-Realization Fellowship in North Texas

Paramahansa Yogananda often said that the SRF work would begin as a gentle zephyr and gradually increase in power and force until, as a mighty wind, it would help sweep away the darkness and impurities clouding the lives of God’s children. As awareness of Yogananda has continued to grow worldwide, the DFW Meditation Group has supported the teachings of Yogananda and the work of SRF in North Texas since 1972. In 2008, the DFW Meditation Group established a Long Term Planning Committee (LTPC) to spearhead efforts to establish a permanent SRF chapel and facilities in Dallas-Ft. Worth.

After Group brainstorming and a formal survey of Group members for input, the LTPC formulated preliminary criteria for a local SRF spiritual complex with a sanctuary, Sunday School, meeting rooms, and foodservice facilities. The LTPC then initiated the the DFW Chapel 2020 fundraising campaign to help establish a permanent SRF facility in Dallas-Ft. Worth. The goal of $450,000 by the year 2020 was achieved. A second campaign, Chapel 2025, was then initiated with a goal of $850,000. We envision establishing a permanent chapel via one of two methods: acquiring an existing church, the most common method, acquiring an appropriate residential property that could be zoned for a church and adapted to fit our needs, or purchasing land and constructing a new facility.

Acquiring An Existing Church

As congregations grow and move into larger facilities, existing churches are often for sale in DFW. Many SRF temples, centers, and meditation groups have purchased and adapted existing church facilities. Examples include the SRF Glendale Temple, the Boston center of SRF, and the Kansas City Meditation Group.

Building a New Chapel

A second way in which to establish a permanent SRF chapel in Dallas-Ft. Worth might be the purchase of vacant land and construction of a new temple and facilities from the ground up. The SRF Atlanta Center was established in this way in 2000.

Ongoing Search and DFW Building Fund

Members of the Long Term Planning Committee, which include a commercial realtor, along with the Managing Council and other Group leaders and interested members continue to look at potential church properties, commercial buildings, and vacant property suitable for an SRF chapel in Dallas-Ft. Worth. To support our efforts, in 2009 SRF established a tax-exempt DFW Building Fund account at the SRF Mother Center in Los Angeles. For more information, or to help support the DFW Chapel Fund project, please visit our DFW Building Fund page. We greatly appreciate your input and financial support of the organization and life’s work of Paramahansa Yogananda.