Workshop for Priestly Development: Jiyo Parsi
Dear Friends,
For many years we have been discussing the importance of giving respect to our Priests and enabling them to become Pastors to the Parsi community, as are the Catholic Priests as well as the Sikh Granthis. Jiyo Parsi has realized that without a strong ethical background in Zoroastrianism, our community is suffering. This is seen in some cases, in community rates of depression, in neglect of our Priests, our Elders, even our children, as we head towards an increasingly self centered society.
Jiyo Parsi therefore has worked with experts from Masina Hospital and other Counseling centres and our senior Priests, to create a special programme for our Priesthood which will be conducted in Mumbai as per the advertisement issued in the Jame Jamshed yesterday. This is attached herewith for your quick perusal. We need you as the Leaders of the community and important voices to encourage priests from your Anjumans and Baugs to come, with their wives, on a fully reimbursed Workshop and travel to and at Mumbai on Saturday 13th May 2017. We need a good response and the importance of this needs to be understood by our clergy and community.
If this is successful, the Priests will be trained in a Series of Workshops, as per their willingness to:
Become eloquent speakers
Communicate values and ideas
Deal with Youth and their problems
Be Effective leaders who can stand up for Zoroastrian values.
Showcase their great talents gained during their priestly training
Become advocates for their own improved conditions
Personality development skills
Emotional development and their own marriage issues
To provide solace at times of grief
To Become Pastors to their community in each Agiary and Atash Behram.
These are only some of the planned events. A Certificate of Participation will be given and if the programme is successful we can even workout more interlinking with High Priests and greater exposure through universities and Academic institutions.
We request you to send as many Mobeds for this initial workshop with the idea that it is a method of self improvement and development. The Priests have been asking for correct interventions and interface with the Parsi and larger community. This is a carefully worked out chance for them. It would be sad if they missed it.Looking forward to your support and your spreading the word quickly.
With warm regards,
Dr. Shernaz Cama
Parzor
A very good initiative.We only hope there will be a good and positive response from our clergy.I would really love to see our priests become guiding lights to our future generations and actively help and n creating better understanding of our great religion.
Start working on middle class and poor lady making them priests as they would serve as para mobed and earn their leaving in the service of God.
Welcome Godly Servant move.
As now stitching sadras and other hand ✋ looms work earnings is not much.
Please support jiyo ladies para mobed.
Wow! My hat’s off to those who have taken this initiative, in what appears to be a last attempt to bring our community together and enlighten them spiritually through the leadership of our priests, which in my estimation is all but lost. Our shrunken population at large, both in India and abroad, unfortunately, have virtually no real understanding of our beautiful Zarathushti religion and its tenets.
As the saying goes, it all starts at home. A majority of parents have withered along the way for varied reasons, and have failed in their duties to raise their children, the Zarathushti way. To make the matters worse, only a handful of our priests in the recent past appear to have upheld the religious values and rituals, while many others seem to have no care, or time to look at the greater good of the community – they are busy focusing on their own selfish cause, whether it be the greed to increase their finances, or play politics in favor of the ‘sethias’ and ‘trusts’ for their own self interests. No wonder, in reciprocation, a majority of their respective congregation have ended up with little, or no respect for the priests – hence our existing deplorable situation, where the mere concepts of guidance and leadership at our priests’ level remain almost improbable, although much desirable.
I sincerely hope that this initiative bears good support from priests from all over India, whether they be from a small little known Agiary, or a well-known Atash Behram. Let us not forget, when people who are expected to show leadership fail in their endeavor, the ‘little-knowns’ can get together and make a big difference!
Once again, congratulations and best wishes to everyone involved in this project. Good luck!!!
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While I commend this project to create respect for our priests, and educate our community about our religion and the role played by priests, I also think that we need to look at the root of the problem of shortage of priests and disrespect for priests.
In our tradition priests can only be trained if they are from the priestly caste, and most of the priests chose to practice this profession as a career to make a living. Moreover, most of the practicing priests did not themselves have adequate knowledge of our religion, and were limited to memorization of the Avesta and Pahalavi passages used in ritual prayers without understanding their meanings.
What we need is for priests to be properly knowledgeable about what they are reciting, and to live a truly religious life. Priesthood should be more of a calling to serve and less of a career. Unfortunately, despite many previous attempts at creating funds to properly compensate practicing priests, they have failed to generate enough funds and therefore not enough caste based children of priests have decided to take on this profession. So it is high time that we open up priesthood to any Zarathushti regardless of caste, and treat them also with respect whether they are trained to be Ervads or Behdin Pasban. because these people are dedicated to serve without the attraction of monetary compensation.
A very thoughtful initiative. Best Wishes to the team.
To have come across this article was sheer chance. For its perceived importance, I wish to comment. The majority of the readers, I hope would consider this initiative by Dr Shernaz Cama and companions, as not just a project that has a start and a finish date, but as a ‘holy’ enterprise.
It is certainly bold that, it was conceived and postulated. Hopefully there will be more than me who will see the need for enthusiasm, effort and energy to be ploughed in, so as to finance, to initiate and to progress it as a continuous programme and then integral to each of the many Atash Dadgah, Atash Adaran, Atash Behram.
Its initial success and also its progressive success, as is dearly sought by all of us, will rejuvenate the age old respect between the behdin and the osta, as it has always been the integral essence of piety inbuilt within our practiced Religion.
At this happy age, my distant limited contribution is to wish it every success to start and to continue implementing its ten mentioned aims for each participant, who will promulgate as pastors to the Community.
My thoughts are for those who support, promote and progress this ‘holy’ enterprise. They surely are the blessed. They will have earned for themselves that humble honour of performing a religiously meritorious deed