I'm in the first row on the purple mat, ready for Lisa's famous thigh-burning lunge series.

by Ann Votaw, CHES, MA, Inwood Resident

As a former Bread and Yoga teacher and current Holy Trinity Inwood paritioner, I watched worlds collide Saturday morning in Lisa Benner’s 9 a.m. Vinyasa class.

The back of the church, now a temporary yoga studio, comfortably seated 20 yogis and their mats. Candles and Saturday’s snowstorm added ambiance.

Marcela Xavier thanked participants for supporting her studio after the January 3 fire destroyed her business on 207th Street and Broadway. She explained that Holy Trinity also had its share of hardships and that Bread and Yoga is willing to help with painting projects and possibly a new floor.

The 1929 Stock Market Crash thwarted Holy Trinity’s improvements, which would have included a rectory and a second story to the sanctuary. Today, the charming A-frame church has about 50 members who climb stairs to reach the property’s Parish House and surrounding rose and vegetable gardens.

Climbing those steps transports me to a small town, where Chloe the cat greets me by rubbing against my ankles.

Taking yoga in this church feels more Norman Rockwell than Empire State, something most people can’t imagine of life in Manhattan.

Author E.B. White wrote in This is New York, “I have an idea that people from villages and small towns, people accustomed to the convenience and the friendliness of neighborhood over-the-fence living, are unaware that life in New York follows the neighborhood pattern. The city is literally a composite of tens of thousands of tiny neighborhood units.”

For at least six months, you too can experience Warrior I under the proud stain glass windows of a tiny hilltop church. Go to www.breadandyoga.com for the most up-to-date schedule.