September 13, to pray for 10 church leaders in Iran who it said were arrested last week by Iranian security forces.
Springfield based U.S. Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) said it had been notified that the group was detained last week when a police raid interrupted a meeting of the Iran General Council of the Assemblies of God, reportedly in Karaj 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the capital Tehran.
"Iranian brethren contacted AGWM to call the Body of Christ to prayer," said Mark Hausfeld, Area Director for AGWM’s Central Eurasia Missions in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.
The Compass news agency reported earlier that initially 80 Pentecostal Christians were detained, blindfolded and separately interrogated by Iranian police late Thursday, September 9. While "most were released," the 10 leaders of Iran’s Assemblies of God Executive Committee are still being held, added Hausfeld.
DETAINEES WELFARE UNKNOWN
He said his organization is "unsure of the detainees welfare" and that AGWM "is monitoring the situation while awaiting further word from experienced people concerning the best way to proceed."
Six ordained ministers were named among the prisoners, identified by their given names of Vartan, Soren, Harmik, George, Omid and Farhad. Another two men serving as pastors and two church elders were identified as Neshan, Hamid, Henry and Robert, Compass quoted Iranian sources as saying.
"This is the biggest crisis for evangelical believers in the country since three Protestant pastors were murdered 10 years ago," another unidentified Iranian Christian told Compass, which has close contacts with persecuted believers.
IRAN CALLED "THEOCRACY"
Human rights watchers have described Iran "as the world’s only theocracy," which forbids the activities of evangelical Christian citizens, closing down their churches and arresting known converts to Christianity.
Under Islamic law, apostates who leave Islam are subject to the death penalty.
Iran is one of the over 200 countries where AGWM claims to be represented by 4,000 people, including 1,900 appointed missionaries, 600 missionary associates and 1,500 missionary children. The Pentecostal denomination supporting AGWM has roughly 50 million members and adherents with 250,000 churches and preaching points worldwide, according to Assemblies of God estimates.
