16 June 2025
An address by the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev'd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani to the Persian Anglican Network Conference, Nottingham, 14th June 2025
How can we be both Persian and Christian?
The question before us is how to be both Persian and Christian? (not Persian and Anglican – that’s to come later, but Persian and Christian.) To those who are British born, or indeed from other European or western countries, this may seem like a strange question. Why the fuss? Why a whole day to explore it? But for those who are Persian you are likely to know the depths that this question plummets. Indeed, it’s so profound that a day will not begin to scratch the surface – a whole life time of enquiry is required.
Tensions and paradoxes
Each of us who have Persian roots will have very different stories. There are commonalities but the themes of today need to be addressed personally as well as collectively. Some of you were born into Muslim families and have converted to Christianity, perhaps in Iran – in a house church – or after having arrived here. A few, like me, are second generation Christians. My father was a convert from a devout and pious Muslim family, so for him, finding his identity as both fully Persian and fully Christian really was something that engaged his thinking and imagination right up until his death. I was baptised as a baby and grew up as part of the small Anglican community in Iran. So I was infused by the idea of being both Persian and Christian from before I remember. But still, the search for an identity that does justice to both has occupied my thinking for many years.
In Iran, we were considered outsiders by virtue of our faith. We were thought of as those who had betrayed our national and religious and social identifies (as you know these things are closely entwined in most eastern cultures and so it’s no surprise that Persian Christians are left with questions about identity). We were seen as those who had aligned ourselves with something inherently western. We were regarded with suspicion, by some even as a nest for spies, a plant for western governments. And it’s easy to see why this was the case. After all the Anglican Church, and a number of other protestant and reformed churches, had grown in Iran in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of the efforts of western missionaries who, while I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, were still very active. That’s why I grew up speaking both English and Persian, and with a mix of eastern and western influences. There was a kind of schizophrenia wired into me from the start, planting the seeds for what would become in later life a search for discovering my own identity.
So we are, all of us Persian Christians, imbibed with an unconscious and deep seated sense of having betrayed part of who we – part of our very Persianness, and that is a very painful thing to come to terms with, especially where this impacts on family relationships – creating distance or worse still, estrangement. And of course, under the current regime, being a Persian Christian is fraught with risk, danger and uncertainty. There will be many stories, I’m sure, in this room about experiences of imprisonment, persecution, pain and loss of some kind or another. These are traumas that put enormous pressure on the life of faith and are bound to raise profound questions about who we are and how we understand ourselves.
I imagine that whatever your experience of coming to faith in Jesus Christ, some of these themes will be familiar, and there will be others too, I’m sure. The point is, that I think it’s important we name these things and are honest about the challenges they pose if we are to continue growing deeper in faith. We cannot avoid or bypass these issues. If we try to do that, in all likelihood we will fall away from faith when things become just too difficult.
And there are huge layers of complexity. Enforced exile, being far from our homeland for many years, for some of us (and I speak for myself here) the loss of confidence in the Persian language, a creeping feeling of alienation from Persian culture whilst not quite fitting in with British culture; feelings of shame, of betrayal, of fear and confusion. All these things and many more, are a kind of rupture from our roots and they have a part to play in how we understand ourselves.
If we are to come to a place of acceptance, we have to recognise these tensions and confusions but also recognise that they need not be overwhelmingly negative forces – though they may feel painful, though they may make us feel on the margins, struggling to find our place – these experiences can also provide rich spaces in which we understand more fully the complexity of what it is to be human and what it is to be a follower of Christ. Instead of seeing them as irreconcilable tensions, we might see them as paradoxes, where tensions are held together and filled with creative potential. As such, our experiences enable us to develop empathy and compassion, and connect more deeply with others who may, for different reasons, have suffered loss or struggled with confused identities. And as well as connecting with others, our experiences of alienation, suffering, bewilderment allow us also to draw closer to the suffering Jesus and in so doing to understand more fully and profoundly something of the nature of God.
Deep foundations
So, having spent quite a bit of time naming some of the challenges and recognising that the question before us – how to be both Persian and Christian – is a real one, full of both pitfalls and opportunities, let’s turn to consider some of the building blocks – the foundations already in place that we can build on as we seek to claim our identity as Persian Christians.
Christianity is in fact neither foreign nor alien to Iran. Sometimes – often - we forget this. But the Christian faith has been alive and present in Iran since the earliest times, and certainly longer than it has been present in this country, and there have been churches and worshipping communities there for centuries. No one knows exactly how or when it started, but legend has it that St. Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, took the Gospel to Iran on his way to India, but in any case, by the end of the 3rd century there was an established church there for we do know that a bishop from Iran travelled to participate in the great Council of Nicaea convened by Emperor Constantine in the year 325. The Council, which gave us the Creed which is still used each week in churches across the globe, this year celebrates 1700 years and we know that the Church in Iran was represented in those discussions. Christianity is no foreign newcomer or late arrival to Iran. It has been there from the start, before the arrival of Islam, and as we know the ancient churches, the Assyrians and Armenians, are still there today and represent this link to the past.
We must reclaim this truth and own it for ourselves and refuse to believe the lie that Christianity is a western invention, that threatens our national identity. Christ and Christianity have been present in the Persian psyche, in Persian art and poetry, in Persian culture for centuries. I’m no expert but I do know that there was enough material in this whole area for my late father to write three volumes on the subject in Persian. His substantial trilogy on Christ and Christianity Among the Iranians was his own magnum opus, if I can put it that way, as he searched for the connections between his adopted faith and his Persian roots.
But even before the founding of a Church in Iran, there are threads that connect Persians to the rise of Christianity. The magi who followed a star to find the baby in the stable in Bethlehem were, St. Matthew tells us, wise men from the East and tradition has it that one at least was from Persia. He represents for us, perhaps, something of the yearning Persian heart, searching for wholeness, belonging, meaning - seeking the Messiah, and finding him in the Christ child. As it was then, so it still is now.
Going back even further, Iran and the Persian empire are present in several Old Testament stories. Esther, a young Persian woman becomes Queen and risks her life to protect the Jewish people from destruction. Likewise, the stories of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel are all set within the Persian empire and we encounter ancient Persian kings like Darius and Cyrus the Great (Dariush and Kourush). Cyrus, in particular played a significant part in the story of God’s people Israel, allowing them to return from exile in Babylon and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. It’s not too far fetched to suggest that his practical demonstration of tolerance for people of different faiths, laid the foundations for what we today understand as interfaith dialogue today; people of faith living side by side, peacefully.
These stories are not just part of the history of Christianity but also the history of Iran and it is in Persian Christians that they come together. We must own them, reclaim them with confidence, and build on them.
Connections between Christianity and Shi’ism
Let me now say something about what we might term theological points of contact between Christianity and the Islam of Iran which is, of course, Shi’ism. As you know, as Islam spread across the Eastern world many countries were subsumed totally, taking on not just the faith but also the language and customs of this new religion. It wasn’t quite like that in Iran. Now there are good historical reasons for the split between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims which you will know better than me, and they relate to lines of descent and different loyalties, after the death of the prophet Mohammad. But some have also suggested that Shi’ism became Iran’s expression of Islam. So, instead of Iran being wholly Islamified, we might say that Islam became Persianised.
Unlike many other countries who succumbed to the Muslim invasion, Iran retained it’s own language, though it took on the Arabic script and many Arabic words crept into our vocabulary, and it retained many of it’s pre-Islamic traditions: Noruz, Chaharshamber Suri, and so on. Despite the best efforts of many, including the Islamic Republic over the past 45 years, these pre-Islamic traditions have proved resilient and impossible to eradicate. They are cherished by the Iranian people and, I believe, they provide us with an identity that is pre-Islamic too and which enables us to connect with who we are, not just through Islam, but through a sense of belonging that goes back much further.
This, I believe, is one of the reasons why it might be easier for Shi’a Muslims (Muslims from Iran) to convert to Christianity than it is for Sunni’s. We have a strong sense of identity beyond the one we have through Islam. There are Persian foundations we need not lose by becoming Christians.
And then there are further theological connections which make the psychological and spiritual journey just that little bit easier. Both Shi’ism and Christianity understand the concept of suffering and martyrdom to be of significance, in a way that Sunni’sm doesn’t; and both look towards the second coming – for Christians of Christ, and for Shi’as the hidden Imam. These are themes that have a place deep in our psyche and unconscious. They provide little openings and ways in to Christianity for Persians, many of whom are naturally spiritual, but disillusioned with the version of Islam they have experienced in Iran over the past 45 years. Many are searching for something different and are drawn to the message of the Gospel which is of good news, liberation and rest for the weary.
Discipleship and learning
None of this is to suggest, however, that the journey from Islam to Christianity is an easy one. Remember the challenges I talked of earlier around identity and belonging, the sense of betrayal and alienation that may be present, and with which you will be familiar. And there are theological challenges too – the idea of Jesus as the Son of God, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, to name but two. These can be barriers that may not be easy to overcome, and so the task of discipleship is complex, and needs sensitivity, patience and a commitment to ongoing study and learning. A Persian may come to Christ in the blink of an eye but to stay with Christ through the ups and downs of what is likely to follow is another matter altogether. Superficiality in faith will take you so far, but if faith is to survive the ambush of the inevitable challenges, and if it is to form deep roots, then it will require gentle nurturing and feeding of those roots.
Good discipleship material in Persian that addresses the difficulties and doesn’t pretend they’re not there, is vital. My father who wrote and translated a huge amount of literature in Persian used to say that the task of translation is not just about finding suitable words that may convey the meaning literally, but about finding ways of expressing concepts within a framework that will make sense. A framework that is based on Persian linguistic traditions, yes, but also cultural, spiritual, social traditions and so on. This is far more complex, takes time and requires good tools.
When I was growing up in Iran, the Anglican Church which, as I said earlier, had its roots in the western missionary movement was seeking a more authentic identity as a Persian Christian presence. This involved close attention to the task of translation in its fullest sense which included giving thought to the architecture and interior of our church buildings, our liturgy, our hymns and so on. All these had to be authentically Persian as well as Christian and to do it well, what was needed was good and faithful people of faith, wise and discerning people with a depth of spirituality and theological understanding.
And that work continues today in the diaspora, and similar things are still needed. Yes, we must integrate the best we can into parish churches and contribute to the communities we are part of; I believe that goes without saying, and we might talk about that further in the session on Anglicanism. But we must also cherish our Persian roots, address the particular challenges Persian Christians face, be honest about the difficulties, provide opportunities for worshipping in our own language, journey patiently alongside those who are new to faith, and look to create more discipleship resources in Persian that will teach and encourage explorers.
Training and developing leaders
This work is vital and so, alongside literature and resources, there is a very real need for developing and training leaders, lay and ordained, who can take the work into the future. These will be people who are themselves committed to mining the depths of the Christian faith and developing their own spiritual life, whilst teaching and mentoring others and providing leadership that is authentically Persian and Christian, both integrated within British life but also retaining a certain distinctiveness, contributing to the rich diversity of God’s church in this country and around the world. I hope we will invest more and more in this area, not just for the sake of Persian Christians in the diaspora but also for that time when the situation in Iran changes, which it surely will, so that some can return and pick up the task of mission and evangelism in Iran for which there is so much need.
We should not underestimate the importance of the need for good leaders. We must spot them and invest time and money in developing them and that, of course, is partly what today is about, which is why it’s so good to be here with you.
