Anglican Diocese of Iran

Diocese of Iran
Location
Country	Iran
Territory	Iran
Ecclesiastical province	Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Statistics
Area	1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi)
Information
Denomination	Anglican
Established	1912
Cathedral	St. Paul's Church, Tehran, Iran
Current leadership
Bishop	Azad Marshall
Map
Diocese of Egypt and North Africa   Diocese of Jerusalem   Diocese of Cyprus and the Persian Gulf   Diocese of Iran
Website
http://www.dioceseofiran.org

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.

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.