IRAN: HISTORIC CHURCH IN TEHRAN SET TO BE DESTROYED

Please pray for Christians from St Peter’s Presbyterian Church in the heart of Tehran who are facing the threat of eviction and the demolition of their church by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Corps has reportedly issued a new property deed in its own name, claiming ownership of the church and its premises. The church stands as one of Iran’s last surviving Christian church centres and is the home of many believers.

At the end of June, the IRGC threatened to confiscate the assets within St Peter’s Church, stating further that the congregation would be required to vacate the grounds or face imprisonment. The orders are a development in a longstanding dispute between the authorities and the church.

With the new deed in place, the believers who have long lived and worshipped at the church are now considered trespassers. Many of the residents are from the country’s historical Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities. This development is concerning for these groups, which have traditionally received greater recognition by the state than other Christian denominations.

Image: The inside of the church (top image is the outside of the church)

Since the declaration of the deed, at least seven families have left the church premises for refuge elsewhere, and others were given mere days to vacate. As well as Christians, a couple of Muslim tenants living on the premises were also asked to leave – this has led believers to fear that the whole complex may be destroyed.

Now, almost all residents have been forced to leave.

“Approximately 95% of the 27 Christian families who had been living on the grounds of St Peter’s Church in Tehran have been forcibly evicted,” says Asad*, an Iranian Christian whose father was an elder in the church. “Each family received some amount of money from the intelligence office as a housing deposit, but the given amount is far from sufficient to secure a rental apartment in Tehran’s current housing market. With such limited financial assistance, most families can only afford to rent accommodation on the outskirts of the city or in nearby villages.

“To make matters worse,” Asad continues, “intelligence officers prevented the families from taking many of their personal belongings, claiming that items such as air-conditioning units and other household fixtures were the church’s property and not their own. As a result, many of these families have been left not only without a place to stay but also without household essentials needed for daily life in case they’re able to move into new apartments.”

Plea for prayer

The case of St Peter’s Church is not an isolated one. The historic Presbyterian Church of Mashhad in northern Iran was totally demolished by authorities and its believers scattered earlier in June. With so many pressures on the lives of Christians already, the loss of a place of worship is another fierce blow to the church in Iran. Please pray for God’s intervention and the faithful courage of believers at this moment.

*Name changed for security reasons