Diocese of Iran
{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox diocese
| jurisdiction = Diocese
| name = Iran
| local =
| image =
| image_size =
| image_alt =
| caption =
| country = Iran
| territory = Iran
| province = Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East
| area_km2 = 1,648,195
| area_sqmi = 636,372
| population =
| population_as_of =
| churches =
| members =
| denomination = Anglican
| established = 1912
| cathedral = Saint Luke's Church , Isfahan, Iran
| bishop = currently overseen by the Primate, the Most Reverend Hosam Naoum
| bishop_title = Bishop
| map = ECJME.png
| map_alt =
| map_caption =
| website = [http://www.dioceseofiran.org/ http://www.dioceseofiran.org]
| footnotes =
}}
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.{{cite book |last= Buchanan |first=Colin |title= The A to Z of Anglicanism |publisher=Scarecrow Press | location = Lanham, Maryland | year= 2009 |isbn=978-0-8108-6842-7 }} The most recent bishop was Azad Marshall,{{cite web |url=http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2007/08/09/irans-new-bishop-installed/ |title=Iran's New Bishop Installed |author=Anglican Mainstream |date=9 August 2007 |publisher=Church of England Newspaper |access-date=10 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027231709/http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2007/08/09/irans-new-bishop-installed/ |archive-date=27 October 2011 }} until 2016. His title is Bishop in Iran, rather than the often expected Bishop of Iran.
History
The Revd. Henry Martyn visited Iran in 1811. He reached Shiraz,{{EB1911|wstitle=Martyn, Henry|volume=17|page=804}} 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.{{cite book | last =Padwick | first =Constance | title =Henry Martyn, Confessor of the Faith| publisher =Inter-Varsity Fellowship | year =1953 | location =London | pages =172 }}{{cite book |editor=F. L. Cross |editor2= E. A. Livingstone | title =The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition | publisher =Oxford University Press | date =13 March 1997 | location =USA | pages =[https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00late/page/1046 1046] | url =https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00late/page/1046 | isbn =019211655X | url-access =registration }} The Church Missionary Society (CMS) was active in Iran from 1869, when the Revdd Robert Bruce established a mission station at Julfa in Isfahan.{{cite web |title= The Church Missionary Gleaner, May 1876|work= The New Mission to Persia|access-date=24 October 2015 |url= http://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Images/CMS_OX_Gleaner_1876_05/5| publisher = Adam Matthew Digital |url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |title= The Church Missionary Gleaner, February 1877|work= From London to Ispahan |access-date=24 October 2015 |url= http://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Images/CMS_OX_Gleaner_1877_02/2| publisher = Adam Matthew Digital |url-access=subscription }} 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.{{cite web|title= The Church Missionary Atlas (Persia)|pages= 78–80|date= 1896| url= http://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Details/CMS_OX_Atlas_01|access-date=19 October 2015 | publisher = Adam Matthew Digital |url-access=subscription }}{{cite book |title= The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]|url= http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc06Cycl-t1-body1-d2-d15.html|year=1908 |publisher= NZETC, The Cyclopedia Company, Limited |location=Christchurch |page=345 }}The Times, Wednesday, 12 September 1894; pg. 7; Issue 34367; col G "The Committee of the Church Missionary Society"
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.{{cite web |url=http://dioceseofiran.org/?page_id=10 |title=History |year=2007 |publisher=Diocese of Iran |access-date=7 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201063744/http://dioceseofiran.org/?page_id=10 |archive-date=1 December 2012}}
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.
= Medical and education missions =
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.Rice, Clara C., Mary Bird in Persia, London: Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1916{{cite web| last =Keen| first =Rosemary| work= Adam Matthew Publications |title= Church Missionary Society Archive|url= http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/church_missionary_society_archive_general/editorial%20introduction%20by%20rosemary%20keen.aspx| access-date=29 January 2017}} The CMS mission operated hospitals and schools. 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 {{ill|Isa Bin Maryam Hospital|fa|بیمارستان عیسی بن مریم}}, in Julfa, Isfahan, Iran, and the Shiraz Christian Missionary Hospital.{{Cite book |last=Ebrahimi |first=Sara |title=Emotion, Mission, Architecture |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-4744-8657-6}}{{Cite book |title=Hospitals in Iran and India, 1500-1950s |publisher=Brill |year=2012 |isbn=9789004228290 |editor-last=Speziale |editor-first=Fabrizio}}
Bishops of the Diocese of Persia/Iran
- 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-Generalhttps://www.jmeca.org.uk/christianity-middle-east/anglican-episcopal-church/iran
- 2019–present: Payam Mosavi (Employer's Representative Assistant Bishop Of Bishop Michael Augustine Owen Lewis)
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120103180713/http://dioceseofiran.org/ Anglican Diocese of Iran]
{{Christianity in Iran}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Christian organizations established in 1912