Bishop Azad Marshall from Pakistan was officially installed as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Iran during an August 5 service at St. Paul’s Church in Tehran, a turning point for interfaith relations in the Islamic Republic.
More than two hundred people attended the three-hour service, which was marked by singing in Farsi and English by the House of Worship and Messiah Worship Choir and orchestra, according to the Anglican Communion News Service. The congregation included Anglicans, members of the Assemblies of God, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims. The service was also attended by a senior official from the office of the President who spoke afterwards of the respect and freedom given to all religious minorities.
Among those attending the installation were Jerusalem Bishop Suheil Dawani; President Bishop Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East; Church of England Bishops Michael Nazir Ali of Rochester and Paul Butler of Southampton; Retired Jerusalem Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal; and Archbishop John Chew, Primate of South East Asia.
According to reports, Marshall said “Iran’s leaders want to open a new chapter with the Anglican Church, nearly 30 years after the Islamic revolution.”
Update: There is a good picture here.
Where were our PB and the Bishop of New Hampshire?
The caption has Rochester and Southampton switched.
Does anyone know if this means the diocese did or will get back the property that was seized after the 1979 revolution?
VaAnglican –
I sense some satire/facetiousness – : )
Otherwise, I can only imagine the hoops to jump through to getting foreigners – especiallly Christians of high visibility – into Iran for such an event. Iran’s officials would have had to see this as a marketing event for the world’s response. Perhaps the invitation was not issued by +Mouneer, or perhaps the US card was too much for Iran to play?
Why push it?
RGEaton
It is very doubtful that they will regain properties held before the Ayatolla Khomeini’s return. Even if they did, they would have a tough time restoring the ministries that were going on in those places. Where would they find Christians willing to expose themselves to attack while staffing the former St. Luke’s Anglican hospital and school for blind children in Isfahan? Let us not forget that Bishop Dequani-Tafti’s son was kidnapped and murdered, and that came after years of harrassment of Iranian Christians under the Shah.
Rob (#4): yes, my tongue was firmly planted in my cheek. 😉
Note, too, the article above on T19 on “Communiqué of House of Bishops of Church of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East”, in which the new Bishop of Iran affixed his name to the statement “We accept and affirm the recommendation made by the Primates in their last meeting in Dar-es-Salaam and we fully endorse their communiqué.”
Man in Iran lashed for being Christian
Tehran, Aug 15, 2007 / 10:14 am (CNA).- Iranian authorities lashed a man 34 times after a copy of the Gospel was found in his car, according to an AKI report, filed Aug. 14.
The man, identified as “A. Sh.†on an Iranian website representing Christian converts, was found to be a Muslim convert to Christianity. He was arrested after police searched his car, which had been involved in an accident, and found the book printed in Farsi.
He was detained at police station Number 102 in Tehran for two days where he was lashed and suffered “other humiliations”, the site said.
Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism are the only religions allowed in Iran. However, converting from Islam to any of them is prohibited.
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