Zoroastrianism

Tradition·Founded c. 1200 BCE·est. 100–200 thousand worldwide

Zoroastrianism

Branch
Community of Zoroastrianism

Outside India and Iran.

Roughly a quarter of the world's Zoroastrians now live elsewhere — Toronto, Chicago, London, Sydney, the Gulf. The centres built there serve as temple, hall and community club at once, and the North American associations have generally admitted converts and the children of mixed marriages, which the Bombay institutions do not recognise. The religion is quietly becoming two.

How you joinMigration, and increasingly intermarriage
Who leadsRoughly a quarter of the world's Zoroastrians now live outside India and Iran. Purpose-built centres in Toronto, Chicago, London and Sydney function as temple, hall and community centre at once, and the North American associations have generally admitted converts and mixed families — which the Bombay institutions do not recognise
The unitThe diaspora — North America, Britain, Australia, the Gulf
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Migration has substantially redistributed the community. Roughly a quarter of the world's Zoroastrians now live outside India and Iran, with significant populations in Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, the Gulf states and Pakistan. The institutions built in the diaspora look different from those at home: purpose-built centres in Toronto, Chicago, Houston, London and Sydney combine a prayer hall, a fire kept at the lower Dadgah grade, a community hall, a library and classrooms, functioning as much as social infrastructure as temple. The federation structures — FEZANA in North America, the World Zoroastrian Organisation — have generally taken the inclusive position on mixed marriages and, in several cases, on conversion, have trained lay mobedyars to perform ceremonies where priests are unavailable, and have used the internet extensively for teaching prayer. The Bombay institutions do not recognise several of these developments. The practical result is a religion whose Indian and diaspora branches are drifting apart on membership, ordination and funerary practice simultaneously.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
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