Two officially registered churches in Tehran have been told they can no longer conduct services in the Persian language, nor hold any meetings on Fridays – Iran’s day off.

Emmanuel Protestant Church and St Peter’s Evangelical Church both received a letter on 10 February from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, informing them of the decision.

They were the only two churches in Iran’s capital city still welcoming large numbers of Persian speakers to their Friday services, after the Central Assemblies of God Church received a similar letter back in December 2009.

Like the Central AOG church, Emmanuel and St Peter’s have now been told they can only hold services on Sundays, when most Iranians are at work, and only in an ethnic-minority language.

“This decision means that there are now no Farsi-language services on Fridays in any officially registered church in Tehran,” noted Middle East Concern.