Iranian authorities are moving to confiscate the country’s oldest Protestant church and ordering Christians to leave their homes, signaling a new escalation in the Islamic Republic’s decades-long campaign against Christianity. 

St. Peter’s Evangelical Church in Tehran is set to be transferred to the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO), a state-controlled organization responsible for confiscating religious and private property.

According to church leaders, about 20 Armenian and Assyrian Christian families living on the church compound have been ordered to vacate within weeks, while church members have been instructed to find another place of worship. 

The church compound encompasses roughly 10 acres in central Tehran and includes the historic sanctuary, schools, and residential buildings that have housed members of Iran’s recognized Christian communities for generations. Church leaders said many of the affected families struggle financially and depend on support from the church community. 

According to reports, intelligence agents recently spent several hours at the compound, telling residents they had come so the families could “become accustomed to our presence.” Church leaders have also reportedly been warned that they could face arrest if residents refuse to comply with the eviction orders. 

The seizure stems from a Revolutionary Court ruling issued in the late 1990s that transferred ownership of the property to EIKO. Church representatives have long challenged the ruling, arguing they were never properly informed of the decision and were denied a meaningful opportunity to contest it. Despite years of appeals, authorities have now begun enforcing the order. 

The planned confiscation follows the seizure or closure of several other Protestant properties across Iran in recent years, including Presbyterian churches in Tabriz and Mashhad and an Assemblies of God church in Gorgan. Together, these actions demonstrate a consistent government strategy of eliminating independent Protestant institutions while tightening state control over religious life. 

A System Built on Religious Control  

The targeting of St. Peter’s reflects a broader system of religious persecution that has existed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. 

Iran remains one of the world’s few theocracies, governed under a constitutional system that intertwines state authority with a strict interpretation of Twelver Shia Islam. The country’s constitution explicitly charges its military with advancing “the sovereignty of Allah’s law throughout the world,” while its legal system criminalizes many forms of religious expression that fall outside the state’s approved framework. 

Although Iran officially recognizes a few historic Armenian and Assyrian Christian communities as protected religious minorities, that protection is narrow and increasingly fragile. Churches serving these historic communities face heavy government oversight, restrictions on leadership, limitations on property rights, and constant monitoring by intelligence services. 

The situation is significantly worse for Muslim-background believers who convert to Christianity and do not receive any protections under Iranian law. 

Iranian authorities routinely portray Christian converts as threats to national security. Converts are frequently arrested during house church gatherings, interrogated, sentenced on vague national security charges, and imprisoned for participating in peaceful religious activities. 

Research published earlier this year by Article18 documented that Iranian courts sentenced 96 Christians to a combined 263 years in prison during 2024. The study found a sixfold increase in cumulative prison sentences compared to the previous year, with average sentence lengths increasing by nearly 40%. Several Christians received prison terms exceeding 10 years. 

Persian Churches Systematically Eliminated  

The pressure facing St. Peter’s also reflects a decades-long effort to eliminate Persian-language Christianity from public life. 

For much of the 20th century, Protestant churches in Iran ministered openly in Persian and welcomed individuals from Muslim backgrounds. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, however, authorities steadily closed these congregations or forced them to abandon Persian-language worship. 

Today, only a small number of officially recognized Protestant churches remain open, and they are generally permitted to conduct services only in Armenian or Assyrian. Persian-language services have largely disappeared, preventing many Iranian seekers and converts from attending legally recognized churches. 

As public churches have become increasingly inaccessible, many Christians have turned to small house churches that meet discreetly in private homes. These gatherings have become primary targets for raids by Iran’s intelligence services, resulting in repeated arrests, confiscation of religious materials, and lengthy prison sentences. 

Growing Concern 

The seizure of St. Peter’s has drawn condemnation from international organizations. 

The World Council of Churches recently called on Iranian authorities to halt the confiscation of church properties, end intimidation of church leaders and residents, and protect the religious freedom of Iran’s Christian communities. The organization also urged governments and international institutions to engage diplomatically to preserve the country’s historic Christian presence. 

The latest developments come as Iran continues to maintain one of the world’s worst records on religious freedom. The U.S. Department of State has designated Iran as a Country of Particular Concern every year since such designations began in 1999, citing systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. 

For Iranian Christians, the attempted seizure of St. Peter’s represents more than the loss of a historic building. It marks another stage in a decades-long campaign to dismantle Christian institutions, restrict public worship, imprison converts, and erase the visible presence of Protestant Christianity from Iranian society. 

As authorities move to remove residents from one of Iran’s oldest Protestant churches, the country’s Christian community faces yet another reminder that even longstanding places of worship are no longer beyond the reach of the Islamic Republic’s campaign against religious freedom. 

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