Diocese of Iran

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Diocese of Iran

Location
Country| Iran
Territory| Iran
Ecclesiastical province| Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Statistics
Area| 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi)
Information
Denomination| Anglican
Established| 1912
Cathedral| Saint Luke's Church , Isfahan, Iran
Current leadership
Bishop| currently overseen by the Primate, the Most Reverend Hosam Naoum
Map

Diocese of Jerusalem

Diocese of Cyprus and the Persian Gulf

Diocese of Iran

Website
http://www.dioceseofiran.org

The Diocese of Iran is one of the three 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.

## History

[edit]

The Revd. Henry Martyn visited Iran in 1811. He reached Shiraz,[3] then 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 Iran from 1869, when the Revdd Robert Bruce established a mission station at Julfa in Isfahan.[6][7] The beginnings of the Anglican Diocese of Iran were in 1883 when Valpy French, an Episcopal bishop, came to Lahore and traveled through Iran.

After Bishop Edward Stuart resigned as the Bishop of Waiapu in New Zealand, he served as a CMS missionary in Julfa from 1894 to 1911.[8][9][10]

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.[11]

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.[11]

### Medical and education missions

[edit]

The CMS mission in Iran expanded to include Kerman, Yazd (1893) and Shiraz (1900), with Mary Bird, a medical missionary, establishing hospitals at Kerman and Yazd.[12][13] The CMS mission operated hospitals and schools.[13] Responding to growing demand for clinical services in the mission clinic Dr. Bird started, Dr. Donald Carr founded and designed a men's and women's hospital, the Isa Bin Maryam Hospital [fa], in Julfa, Isfahan, Iran, and the Shiraz Christian Missionary Hospital.[14][15]

## Bishops of the Diocese of Persia/Iran

[edit]

* 1912–1917: Charles Stileman
* 1917–1935: James Linton
* 1935–1960: William Thompson
* 1960–1990: Hassan Dehqani-Tafti

* 1985–1990: Iraj Mottahedeh, Assistant Bishop

* 1985–2002: Iraj Mottahedeh (interim bishop 2002–2004)
* 2007–2016: Azad Marshall (became Bishop in Raiwind)
* 2016–2017: Payam Mosavi (Employer's Representative Assistant Bishop Of Bishop Azad Marshall )
* 2016–present: vacant
* 2017–2019: Albert Walters, Vicar-General[16]
* 2019–present: Payam Mosavi (Employer's Representative Assistant Bishop Of Bishop Michael Augustine Owen Lewis)

## See also

[edit]

* Christianity portal

* Christianity in Iran
* Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East
* Church Missionary Society in the Middle East and North Africa

## References

[edit]

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. ^ "The Church Missionary Atlas (Persia)". Adam Matthew Digital. 1896. pp. 78–80. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
9. ^ The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]. Christchurch: NZETC, The Cyclopedia Company, Limited. 1908. p. 345.
10. ^ The Times, Wednesday, 12 September 1894; pg. 7; Issue 34367; col G "The Committee of the Church Missionary Society"
11. ^ a b "History". Diocese of Iran. 2007. Archived from the original on 1 December 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
12. ^ Rice, Clara C., Mary Bird in Persia, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916
13. ^ a b Keen, Rosemary. "Church Missionary Society Archive". Adam Matthew Publications. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
14. ^ Ebrahimi, Sara (2023). Emotion, Mission, Architecture. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-8657-6.
15. ^ Speziale, Fabrizio, ed. (2012). Hospitals in Iran and India, 1500-1950s. Brill. ISBN 9789004228290.
16. ^ https://www.jmeca.org.uk/christianity-middle-east/anglican-episcopal-church/iran

## External links

[edit]

* Anglican Diocese of Iran

* v
* t
* e

Christianity in Iran

Catholic Church|

* Catholic Church in Iran
* Armenian Catholic Church
* Chaldean Catholic Church

Oriental Orthodoxy|

* Armenian Apostolic Church

Church of the East|

* Assyrian Church of the East

Protestantism|

* Jama'at-e Rabbani
* Armenian Evangelical Church
* Armenian Brotherhood Church
* Assyrian Evangelical Church
* Assyrian Pentecostal Church
* Anglican Diocese of Iran

Missionaries|

* Mary Bruins Allison
* Mary Bird
* Eugène Boré
* Joseph Gallup Cochran
* Joseph Cochran
* Nancy Jane Dean
* Valpy French
* Fidelia Fisk
* Asahel Grant
* James Hawkes
* Ralph Cooper Hutchison
* Samuel M. Jordan
* Henry Martyn
* William McElwee Miller
* Pacifique de Provins
* Justin Perkins
* Eli Smith
* Edward Stuart

See also|

* List of Armenian churches in Iran
* List of Assyrian churches in Iran
* Christianity in the Safavid Empire
* Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia
* New Julfa
* Bible translations into Persian
* Persian Bible Dictionary
* Category:Christianity in the Sasanian Empire

* Christianity portal
* Iran portal

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