Fresh hope for Anglican Church in Iran

In 1976 Azad Marshall was sent by St Andrews Church, Lahore, Pakistan to assist in Christian ministry in Iran. Three years later, following the Iranian Revolution and the return of Ayatollah Khomeini, Bishop Deqhani-Tafti left the country after his son had been killed and there had been attempts on his own life. The Anglican Church’s buildings, schools and hospitals were taken over by the state.

Many of the 100,000 Christians in Iran, a country of 70 million people, are Armenian Christians. The Anglican Church is small, but has a remarkable public role.

In 2004, on the retirement of Bishop Mottahedeh, the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East appointed Azad Marshall as Vicar-General of the Diocese of Iran. By that time he had been been a pastor in Pakistan and appointed Bishop for the Urdu speaking congregations in the Gulf.

There followed three years of delicate negotiations with the government of Iran to enable the church to install Bishop Azad Marshall as the sixth Bishop in Iran.

I attended his installation in St Peter’s Tehran representing the Bishop and Diocese of Oxford. The first Episcopal visitor to Iran in 1883 was Thomas Valpy French, who following a ministry at St Ebbe’s Oxford went to be Bishop of Lahore in what was then North India.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester preached on the Transfiguration to a 200 strong congregation of Christians and Muslims: ‘Jesus said: ‘When I am lifted up I will draw everyone to myself’. As those who live the risen life, we must see what we have to put off and what we have to put on. Our task is to seek such glory of Jesus. His risen life is to be found in the Bible. His risen life helps us lose what hinders life.’

Representatives of the embassies of Egypt, Pakistan and the United Kingdom attended. The House of Worship Choir contributed fabulous songs in Urdu, Farsi and English following five months of practice for the event.

There followed a series of meetings for Bishop Azad and his guests with senior Iranian leaders. We met with former President Khatami who is known for promoting a Dialogue of Civilisations in which religion plays a key role. He visited Oxford earlier this year and I was able to invite him to give a seminar on his next visit at the Islamic Studies Programme of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.

At all our meetings we were accompanied by a representative of the President’s office. Dr Sadaghati affirmed that there was freedom for people to change from one faith to another, and that there were Christians who had been Muslims. We were able to affirm this understanding of the freedom of religion from the Christian scriptures: ‘Who were born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’. John 1.12.

The Anglican Church is clearly able to engage in public with the Government, thus providing a degree of legitimacy for the activity of all Christian groups. Discussions are currently going on to secure the eventual return of churches, hospitals and schools to the Church. There is fresh hope for the Anglican Church in Iran. 

Canon Dr Chris Sugden is a member of General Synod for the Diocese of Oxford.