Diocese of Iran

The Diocese of Iran is one of the four dioceses of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. The diocese was established in 1912 as the Diocese of Persia and was incorporated into the Jerusalem Archbishopric in 1957.[1] The most recent bishop was Azad Marshall,[2] until 2016. His title is Bishop in Iran, rather than the often expected Bishop of Iran.

Diocese of Iran
Location
CountryIran
TerritoryIran
Ecclesiastical provinceProvince of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Statistics
Area1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi)
Information
DenominationAnglican
Established1912
CathedralSt. Paul's Church, Tehran, Iran
Current leadership
Bishopcurrently overseen by the Primate, the Most Reverend Michael Lewis
Map

  Diocese of Jerusalem
  Diocese of Cyprus and the Persian Gulf
  Diocese of Iran
Website
http://www.dioceseofiran.org

History

The Revd. Henry Martyn visited Persia in 1811. He reached Shiraz,[3] then he travelled to Tabriz to attempt to present the Shah with his Persian translation of the New Testament. The British ambassador to the Shah, was unable to bring about a meeting, but did deliver the manuscript to the Shah.[4][5] The Church Missionary Society (CMS) was active in Persia from 1869, when the Revdd Robert Bruce established a mission station at Julfa in Ispahan.[6][7] The CMS mission in Persia expanded to include Kerman, Yezd (1893) and Shiraz (1900), with Mary Bird, a medical missionary, establishing hospitals at Kerman and Yezd.[8][9] The CMS mission operated hospitals and schools.[9] After Bishop Edward Stuart resigned as the Bishop of Waiapu in New Zealand, he then served as a CMS missionary in Julfa from 1894 to 1911.[10][11][12]

The beginnings of the Anglican Diocese of Iran were in 1883 when Valpy French, an Episcopal bishop, came to Lahore and traveled through Persia. In 1912, Charles Stileman became the first bishop of the new diocese. James Linton was consecrated as the next bishop in 1919. On 18 October 1935, William Thompson was consecrated as Iran's third bishop in St Paul's Cathedral, London. On 25 April 1961, he was succeeded by Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, the first native Persian bishop of Iran. On 11 June 1986, Iraj Mottahedeh was consecrated as the fifth bishop of Iran.[13]

When Iraj Mottahedeh retired in 2004, the Central Synod of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East invited Azad Marshall, a bishop of the Church of Pakistan and an associate bishop in the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, to provide episcopal oversight to the Diocese of Iran as its bishop. He was installed on 5 August 2007 in St Paul's Church in Tehran by Mouneer Anis, Bishop of Egypt and Presiding Bishop of the ECJME.[13]

Bishops of the Diocese of Persia/Iran
  • 1985–1990: Iraj Mottahedeh, Assistant Bishop

See also

References
  1. Buchanan, Colin (2009). The A to Z of Anglicanism. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6842-7.
  2. Anglican Mainstream (9 August 2007). "Iran's New Bishop Installed". Church of England Newspaper. Archived from the original on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  3. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Martyn, Henry". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 804.
  4. Padwick, Constance (1953). Henry Martyn, Confessor of the Faith. London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship. p. 172.
  5. F. L. Cross; E. A. Livingstone, eds. (13 March 1997). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition. USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 1046. ISBN 019211655X.
  6. "The Church Missionary Gleaner, May 1876". The New Mission to Persia. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  7. "The Church Missionary Gleaner, February 1877". From London to Ispahan. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  8. Rice, Clara C., Mary Bird in Persia, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916
  9. Keen, Rosemary. "Church Missionary Society Archive". Adam Matthew Publications. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  10. "The Church Missionary Atlas (Persia)". Adam Matthew Digital. 1896. pp. 78–80. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  11. The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]. Christchurch: NZETC, The Cyclopedia Company, Limited. 1908. p. 345.
  12. The Times, Wednesday, 12 September 1894; pg. 7; Issue 34367; col G "The Committee of the Church Missionary Society"
  13. "History". Diocese of Iran. 2007. Archived from the original on 1 December 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  14. https://www.jmeca.org.uk/christianity-middle-east/anglican-episcopal-church/iran
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