Government agents raided a 100-year-old church in Iran recently, changing all the locks and tearing down the cross. 

Article18, an Iranian Christian advocacy group, reports that the Presbyterian church in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz was "forcibly closed" in May.

The church is made up of Assyrian Christians. “They made it clear that the Assyrian people are no longer allowed to hold any worship service there,” explained a trusted source to Article18.

The source told Article18 that intelligence agents "entered our church compound and changed all the locks on the doors, removed the cross from the church’s high tower, installed some monitoring instruments and started to threaten and force our custodian to leave his place inside the compound immediately."

The church had been "confiscated" by Revolutionary Court order in 2011, according to Article18, but they had been able to continue using the building to worship in the Assyrian language. 

“Many churches owned by Protestants have been confiscated in Iran,” explains Article18’s Advocacy Director, Mansour Borji, “In most cases, the government has been unable to repurpose them, especially if they were listed. So they typically remain as empty buildings, often neglected, and turn into ruins before being demolished, as was the case with the church in Kerman.”

It is not only for Christians to proselytize in Iran, but it is also illegal to hold services in Persian, which is the national language of Iran. It is also illegal for Muslims to convert to Christianity in the Middle Eastern country.