Report from the FEZANA Interfaith Activities Committee on recent interfaith events with Zoroastrian participation from around the country:

Cincinnati Festival of Faiths:
The Zoroastrian Association of KY, OH, & IN (ZAKOI) participated in the 3rd Annual Cincinnati Festival of Faiths – Compassion Through Action – Hope, Healing, & Justice.  It was a virtual week-long festival from 23rd to 30th August.  Members of ZAKOI were on the Steering Committee for this festival (Arish Antia as the youth representative, and Bakhtavar Desai).  Several members and friends of ZAKOI participated in the programs: including Fareesh Kanga, who presented on the Navjote ceremony in the Faith Celebrations & Rituals program; Ervad Fred Desai offered a prayer for Hope, Healing & Justice in the festival Opening Devotional; Benaifer Sepai (Pittsburgh), Anosh Irani (Houston), Arianna Kelawala (Columbus), Shanaya Bharucha & Arish Antia (Cincinnati) made their outstanding presentations in a youth program called Living My Faith, and Bakhtavar Desai presented in Faithful Citizenship.  The recording links to all the wonderful programs are at https://www.equasion.org/festival-of-faiths/calendar-of-activities/   for anyone to enjoy at their leisure.  

IFCMW Unity Walk:
According to a report received from ZAMWI members – Behnaz Mistry, Shirin Mehri and Behnoosh Sethna, for this year’s Virtual Inter-Faith Council of Metropolitan Washington’s Unity Walk, speakers were invited from around the globe from Toronto, Canada, Karachi, Pakistan and Washington DC, USA. “The topic for the session was one of relevance not just as Zarthushtis, but also where we all find ourselves in the world today. The role individual responsibility plays in our lives and what Zoroastrianism has to share about it. We are presented with choices on a daily basis in order to act in our own and our community’s best interest”.  ZAMWI members participated in this session and focused on what the Gathas have to say about crucial issues of human rights, justice, and equality, through the exercise of individual responsibility. The ZAMWI panel consisted of Hormuzd Katki (a priest) and Mahshad Khosraviani (priestess) joined by Behnoosh Sethna and Shirin Mehri, previous FEZANA delegates at the UN Commission on Status of Women.  Peek in on the conversation and access the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJzzwB3Xx0s&ab_channel=ZAMWIVIDEOS

Coalition for the Homeless Memorial Service:
Ervad Pervez Patel from ZAGNY participated in this Memorial Service on 9/23/20 held by the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, in memory of several homeless people who have died due to COVID this year.  May their souls rest in peace.  This was the third service held in honor of those souls who were homeless when they were alive, and many of them, almost all of them, had no service performed in their honor when they passed away.  So the Coalition for the Homeless organized this service on 9/22/20, in which our Zoroastrian participation and prayers were given by Ervad Patel.  Thank you, Ervad Pervez Patel!

Kids for Peace (K4P):
Any kids in the U.S. Middle – High School age, interested in joining Kids for Peace, please contact me. Also, any High School youth interested in joining the K4P National Leadership Training Program, please contact me asap, no later than 6th October.  You can reach me (Bakhtavar) at 513-560-0581 or bfdesai@aol.com

Gandhi Jayanti, October 2:
2nd October 2020 is declared as the International Day of Non violence by the United Nations. 

This year, the Gandhi Memorial Center, Bethesda, MD, is celebrating the 151st birthday of Mahatma Gandhiji virtually on 2nd October, (at 5:30 PM EDT, 4:30 PM Central Time, and 2:30 pm PST).  

The Gandhi Memorial Center had asked for submission of at least 151 30-second long video clips of individuals lighting a lamp to be included in a virtual collage to commemorate the anniversary.  Thanks to Dr. Behram Pastakia, who brought this to our attention, we advertised this to the heads of all Zoroastrian Associations to pass on to their communities, and we should should have at least some Zoroastrian families in NA participating in this effort by sending in their videos.

The idea is to lift up the concept of light over darkness, knowledge and wisdom over ignorance.  Of the seven faith traditions from which prayers were recited at the Ashram on the banks of the Sabarmati River run by Mahatma Gandhi in India, a Zoroastrian prayer, (the last verse from the Ahunavaiti Gatha) is included. These prayers will form the audio background for the video broadcast on 2 October 2020 – http://www.gandhimemorialcenter.org/  

Parliament of the World’s Religions:
As part of the “interfaith perspective” webinar series the Parliament’s Next Generation Task Force is celebrating the critical importance of empowering girls in order to foster a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world with the webinar, Planting Seeds of Hope: A Multigenerational Conversation on Empowering Girls, Thursday, October 15th at 11am EST, Via Zoom and Live on the Parliament Facebook page  Register at https://parliamentofreligions.org/blog/2020-09-24-1036/join-nextgen-task-force-multigenerational-conversation-empowering-girls

PoWR launches Faith Based Action Report on the Sustainable Development Goals. You can read the report at:  https://parliamentofreligions.org/blog/2020-09-24-1037/parliament-launches-faith-based-action-report-sustainable-development-goals

— Submitted by Bakhtavar Desai

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