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
The Revd. Henry Martyn visited Persia in 1811. He reached Shiraz,[3] then he 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 Persia from 1869, when the Revdd Robert Bruce established a mission station at Julfa in Ispahan.[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 Persia.
The CMS mission in Persia 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]
^Buchanan, Colin (2009). The A to Z of Anglicanism. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN978-0-8108-6842-7.
^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.
