Country Iran Established 1912 Area 1.648 million km² | Denomination Anglican Bishop Azad Marshall Territory Iran | |
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Ecclesiastical province Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East Cathedral St. Paul's Church, Tehran, Iran | ||
Mar dinkha iv diocese of iran assyrian church of the east school
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. The current bishop is Azad Marshall. His title is Bishop in Iran, rather than the often expected Bishop of Iran.
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History
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.
When Iraj Mottahedeh retired in 2004, the Central Synod of the Middle East invited Azad Marshall, Bishop of the Persian Gulf and Associate Bishop of the Church in the Middle East, to provide episcopal oversight to the Diocese of Iran as 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.