A historic evangelical church in Tehran has been threatened with closure by the Iranian authorities.
St Peter Evangelical Church is one of very few Protestant churches in Iran operating openly and with its own building.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has already seized a 10,000 square metre garden belonging to the church, and church leaders fear that the step is to seize the building close the church.
St Peter Evangelical Church in Tehran, Iran [Image credit: Herbert Karim Masihi/Wikipedia]
St Peter Church was founded in 1876 by missionaries from the US, and was granted land by Naser al-Din, the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran.
As a historic church serving primarily Armenian- and Assyrian-speaking Christians, the church has thus far escaped closure.
Armenians and Assyrians are recognised by the Iranian authorities as Christian minority groups, and are permitted to worship in their own language, albeit under severe restrictions and government surveillance.
Legal fight not possible
St Peter Church has previously been ordered to stop conducting languages in Farsi.
Farsi (Persian)-speaking Christians are converts from Islam. Worship in Farsi and Christian evangelism in any language is forbidden.
Read more: What is it like to live as a Christian in Iran?
One convert from Islam, now living in the UK, has described how she attended the church as a 17-year-old and was warned by a government agent that if she continued she would be arrested as a CIA spy.
The church garden that was seized several weeks ago was home to around 20 families, mainly Armenian and Assyrian Christians, who “have no chance to survive without church support”, according to Sargez Benyamin, executive secretary of the Synod of the Evangelical Church of Iran in Diaspora and a former pastor of the church.
“In Iran, you don’t have an independent court,” continued Benyamin, “so it would not be possible for us to fight back, to start a legal fight.”
How you can pray
Intercede for the leaders and congregation of St Peter Church at this time of great difficulty. Pray that they will not lose the building that has been theirs for more than 150 years. Ask the Lord to comfort them with the knowledge that even if they do lose their land and building, they have an inheritance that can never be taken away. Pray that the families dependent on support from the church will have their needs met.
