The Parish Magazine March 2023

the parish noticeboard — 4
Who invented
religion?
Ahura Mazda, the name for a divinity exalted by Zoroaster as the one,
uncreated, creator, hence God, is depicted on a roof top in Yazd, Iran.
In 2017, the historical city of Yazd was recognized as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site.
Vladimir Melni, dreamstime.com
According to the World Population Clock, the world's
population has just passed 8 billion. What is perhaps
more interesting, is that these 8 billion people have,
and are forming, thousands of different religions. Some
estimates put 'religious type groups' at over 4,000 and
they are growing at such a rate that the total will soon be
uncountable.
Many scholars believe that religion in the form of the
belief in a god, or gods, first began in Persia, which, since
1935, has been called Iran. Today in Iran the governmentbacked
religion is Islam although three other religions —
Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism — are tolerated,
albeit, with very srict controls.
Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Muslims, believe in a
monotheistic god, that is, only one god. No others exist.
Of these four religions, Zoroastrianism, which began in
Persia, is the oldest – and many scholars believe it to be the
first religion in the world. Like many religions, at its centre is
the constant struggle between good and evil spiritual forces.
THE LORD OF WISDOM
Some scholars believe that Christianity, Judaism and
Islam have their roots in Zoroastrianism, which, according
to Zoroastrian tradition, was started by a prophet called
Zoroaster, who is also known as Zaranthushtra. At the age
of 30 years he had a divine vision of a supreme being while
partaking in a pagan purification rite and he began teaching
followers to worship a single god he called Ahura Mazda,
which means the Lord of Wisdom. Religion, as we know it
today, it is thought, was born. Zoroaster's birth is celebrated
this month on 26 March. He died aged 77 years.
Today India has the largest number of Zoroastrians,
although this total is said to be declining, whereas in North
America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand the number of
Zoroastrians is increasing. However, in world religion terms,
their numbers are very small, about 100,000 - 200,000. This
compares with the largest worldwide religion, Christianity,
which has an estimated 2.2 billion believers. The second
largest religion is Islam with 1.9 billion and at the bottom of
the top 10 religions is Judaism with 15.3 million.
From the
editor's desk
editor@theparishmagazine.co.uk
Listening to mother
The Parish Magazine - March 2023 11
While I have a vague idea of the content for each month's
magazine when I sit down at my desk to start work on it,
I am always surprised how different themes emerge as
the days go by. Some of the ideas would be tucked away
in my memory bank, such as the article about manatees
on page 15. I came across the manatee for the first time
in the Bible where it is mentioned 12 times and I was
fascinated to learn that they had been living on our
planet for 60 million years. I filed it away in my future
story memory bank only to discover recently that in
March there is an annual awareness day in its honour,
hence the article in this issue.
Other ideas for stories are determined by outside events
and those regular, annual celebrations, such as Mothering
Sunday — which is the theme of some of the content this
month.
The first Mothering Sunday type story arrived on my
desk from Westy, our youth minister. You may feel the
link is tenuous because it is about the serious issues that
many children, mainly boys, are growing up with today,
namely, they are living in a single parent, fatherless home. In
such cases, which are growing in number every year, many
mothers are struggling and need as much help and prayers as
the children themselves. Read more about this on page 19.
SMOKING AND SWEARING
Another Mothering Sunday related article is by Claude
on page 9. Sometime ago during a Sunday morning chat he
told me that he would like to write about memories of his
mother. Thinking it would be a nice piece about some of the
special, happy, memories he has, I thought it would be ideal
for this issue. It's on page 9 if you have not read about his
mother's smoking habits yet!
Claude's memories reminded me of a similar habit of
my own mother. Although she also smoked, she was in a
different league from Claude's mum. My mother's bad habit
was swearing and just as Claude never smoked in his life,
I never swear. The swear words my mother used 70 years
ago were tame to what we hear every day now. In fact,
many of her words are now in such use they can be found in
standard English dictionaries, but I still avoid saying them.
A WISE MOTHER'S WORDS
Last Sunday, the Archdeacon of Berkshire led our
worship and preached about Mary the mother of Jesus —
probably the world's best known mother. We learnt that
in the Bible there is only one occasion when we hear Mary
speak, and she only says five words. Surprisingly, Mary is
also only named 12 times. The occasion that we hear her
speak is at a wedding in Cana when the wine ran out and
Mary tells the servants, 'Do as he tells you.' The 'he' she
refers to is her son Jesus. They are wise words for us all, not
just on Mothering Sunday, but throughout our lives. The
world would be a far better place if we took notice of the
world's best known mother and do as her son tells us.