Efforts are under way by the North American Mobeds Council (NAMC) to set up an Institute of Zoroastrian and Athornan Studies with the cooperation of concerned members of the Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Chicago. "We are at a very early/exploratory stage of determining the viability of this project,” clarified NAMC president Arda-e Viraf Minocherhomji in response to Parsiana’s queries. Concerned that the Zoroastrian community in North America is largely dependent on volunteers to serve its religious and spiritual needs, the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) urged each of its members to make financial provisions for one resident priest.
"Our greatest hurdle is our immigrant mindset…except for one or two of our 27 associations, all are exclusively volunteer organizations. We may pride ourselves as an all-volunteer force but one can see that it is not a sustainable model. One cannot expect the enthusiasm of the first settlers to rub off on succeeding generations. The spiritual needs of our next generation contrasts with that of the first settlers,” noted a write-up in the July 2020 FEZANA Bulletin.
"We have taken our mobeds for granted, far too long… We have a dozen centers in North America, but it has never occurred to us during their acquisition that a sizable portion of funds need be set aside for the mobeds! At the association level we are rightly concerned with our fiscal viability and to a lesser extent that of FEZANA, but seldom, if ever, have we shown support for the NAMC. That has to change,” stressed the article.
Priests perform a jashan at the XVII North American Zoroastrian Congress
in Los Angeles in 2014 Photo: Jasmine D. Driver
Each association could make a beginning by appointing a salaried resident priest to perform nominal services at the priest’s convenience (this employment will not be the priest’s mainstay). Over time, that position can grow to become a full-time responsibility. This may encourage individuals to take up priesthood and thus create a sustainable model. "Hopefully in time we shall attract our best and most gifted so as to make them of greatest service to our community,” stated the report, adding, "Cultivation of a strong professional priesthood is the key to our sustainability. Whilst taking direction from the Mobeds Council, the independence of the mobeds will be considered sacrosanct, inviolable, a custom from the earliest times which ought to be honored. Like in other faiths our mobeds have to play a leadership role in our societies with the laity assisting. It must be very clear in our minds that without priests there shall be no practice of our faith in North America; we may be left only with our doctrine which in effect is humanism.”
The administration model of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE) was cited as an example for although the bulk of the ZTFE work is undertaken by volunteers (president, managing committee, trustees and sub-committees), they are assisted by three full-time workers (administrative secretary, facilities coordinator/caretaker, resident mobed) and one part-time cemetery caretaker whose salaries constitute a little under a third of their annual budget. Bequests and large endowments by donors and smaller contributions by members and well-wishers are the main source of their income.