FORMER BISHOP OF IRAN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29607, 1 September 1961, Page 22

FORMER BISHOP OF IRAN

Visit To Daughter In Nth Canterbury

A delightful country, surprisingly well established considering its comparatively brief existence, was t|ie description of his first impressions of New Zealand, given by the Rt. Rev. W. J. Thompson, the former Anglican Bishop of Iran, who arrived in New Zealand a few days ago on a visit of some months to one of his daughters, Mrs R. W, Ensor, of Bullock creek, Rangiora. New Zealand, one of the newest countries in the world. contrasted very strongly with Iran, which was among the oldest.. Iran would be celebrating the two thousand five hundredth anniversary of the founding of the country’s monarchy next year, Bishop Thompson said. For 47 years Bishop Thompson has been in Iran, and for 26 of them he was Bishop. He retired a few months ago and was succeeded by his son-in-law, the Rt. Rev. Hassan Deh-qani-Tafti. the first Iranian national to take the office for at least 1300 years, said Bishop Thompson, who has taken a lively interest in the history of the area. Although the Christian Church in Iran now represented less than 5 per cent, of the people, the countryhad' been an important centre for early Christianity and had had numerous Bishops until the Church was driven out by the Arab invasion of the seventh century and the Mongol invasions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Bishop Thompson was born in Ireland. He took a degree in civil engineering at Cambridge, and in 1908 went to India where he did educational and engineering work for four years. During the First World War he was in the Royal Engineers and it was after this he became a clergyman and went to Iran. Iran, one of the five dioceses in the Bishopric of Jerusalem. was formed in 1912 and, so. will celebrate its jubilee next year.

New Zealand was not completely disassociated with Iran, said Bishop Thompson because the Stuart Memorial College, of which, for 18 years he was principal, was named after the Rt. Rev. [E. A. Stuart, who had been Bishop of Waiapu, in the North Island, before going as a missionary to Iran where he spent the last 14 years of his life. Bishop Thompson and Mrs Thompson will stay with their daughter until the end of the year and will then visit Australia. before settling in London.