Prayer Class Activities - 2010
- 13th February 2010 - First Prayer Class of 2010
- 27th November 2010 - ZANZ Prayer Class End of Year Event
| Date | 13th February 2010 |
| Event | First Prayer Class of 2010 |
| Venue | Te-Tuhi The Mark |
| Description |
ZANZ's first prayer class for the year 2010 was held on 13th February at Te Tuhi from 5.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. It was a momentous day for the thirty children and their parents who were present as this was the last class conducted by our popular Ervard Hormaz Patel. Hormaz has always been in the forefront and has religiously conducted ZANZ prayer classes since 2002. His dedication and selfless service to impart religious education to our young Zarthostis by teaching them basic prayers and our rituals has helped ZANZ's efforts to lay a solid religious foundation not only for our kids but also for the Zarthosti community at large. He is well known to most of our Parsee brethren by virtue of him conducting many jashans and other religious ceremonies for our community.
Hormaz and his family have decided to move to Australia to seek greener pastures. On 13th Feb 2010, ZANZ presented Hormaz with a small token of appreciation and a plaque signed by all our prayer class kids appreciating his selfless service to our community. We wish Hormaz and his family a happy and prosperous future in Australia. His presence will be missed by us all here in New Zealand and hopefully one day we can have a video link with him and conduct combined prayer classes with Melbourne. We would also like to update you all on the progress of our Prayer classes. We start with Hum Bandagi as has been the ritual over the past many years. The pre-Navjote children are taught the basic prayers and kusti by Ervard Hormaz Patel, Mana Vazifdar and Thrity Mistry. The children also enjoy hearing stories with morals and colouring pictures. Our post-Navjote students are also having great fun and religious education, albeit, with a different approach under the leadership of Tehmus Mistry. Serious debates, exchange of ideas, meanings of different prayers, video clips on Zarthosti rituals, linking daily life examples/incidents with our religious principles/doctrine and encouraging the kids to work collaboratively on a project are some of the activities of this class. This has taken the class to a new level where the children have an exciting and interesting time at Prayer class. In the last half hour, Farida Master teaches these children monajats and it gives great pleasure to see the kids singing and rehearsing the songs with actions. ZANZ's Prayer classes are an important part of our association and closely related to several of its objectives. We take their importance very seriously and encourage our children to come regularly to maintain continuity and build camaraderie. We are very happy to announce that our young Ervard Perzaan Mehta will take over the reins from Hormaz Patel and will conduct the classes for our pre-Navjote kids. Perzaan is happy to take on this role and is keenly interested in promoting our Zoroastrian values. We welcome Ervard Perzaan Mehta to the Prayer Class Team.
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| Date | 27th November 2010 |
| Event | ZANZ Prayer Class End of Year Event |
| Venue | Extreme Edge Indoor Climbing, Panmure |
| Description | Twenty children and four brave adults climbed walls at Extreme Edge Indoor Climbing, Panmure. This was a reward for the prayer class children for regularly attending and participating in the prayer class sessions in 2010. Most of the children were familiar with the activity and encouraged and helped the others to scale the variety of colourful and challenging walls. There was a short break for juice, chips and biscuits after which the children were back on the walls for a second session until it was time to go home. The ZANZ Management Committee would like to thank all the parents who have consistently brought their children to the fortnightly prayer classes. Regards, ZANZ Management Committee |
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