"The Anglican church was the only church in my town. It might have been God's providence or sheer coincidence but my Christian roots are in the Anglican Communion. My father was and is an agnostic intellectual and my mother was a nominal Muslim who observed her faith only during high and holy days.

"During my teen years, my older sister became a Christian. At that time I was a zealous Muslim and I knew that she had committed the unforgivable sin of apostasy. To save her from the punishment of death and eternal fire of Allah's unquenchable wrath, I began reading about Christianity hoping that in a debate I could show her that she was making a mistake and so I could bring her back to Islam.

"I began reading the New Testament. As a Muslim, I was taught that the Christian scriptures are corrupt and full of inconsistencies. I was convinced that by reading the New Testament, I would be able to spot those inconsistencies and point them to my sister. I read the synoptic gospels. I began to like Jesus and like the things he did. More than anything, I began to feel convicted of my sins. I felt as though I was one of the Pharisees who stop others from following Jesus.

"While reading about God as the Bible portrays Him, it became apparent to me that the Christian portrayal of God was entirely different from Islam's idea regarding Allah. As a Muslim, I was brought up to fear God and to consider myself a slave of God. It was the fourth gospel account that began the change in my life. The message of the Gospel of St. John was that one could become a son or daughter of God.

"For as long as I can remember, I longed to have a relationship with God, but I feared Him. The message of St. John, was a message of hope. It gave me a freedom to approach the Almighty. I could call Him Father and not fear that I had committed an act of blasphemy. I was looking for that kind of a relationship. That was one thing Islam had never provided me with. The difference was too much. After some hard thinking, I began praying to the Christian God in the summer of 1977 and thus my relationship with Jesus was born...a relationship that is still alive in my heart today."

Khandani's life began to change.

In 1986, four bishops came to Iran to consecrate the Rev. Iraj Mottahedeh to be the bishop of Iran. One of those men was Rochester Bishop, Michael Nazir-Ali. Since he could speak English, he was asked to work on the bishop's sermon on the day of the consecration as he knew ancient Persian and the bishop wanted to preach in Farsi. He was tasked to help modernize his Persian. Nazir-Ali ended up preaching in English after all, and at the end of the day he told Khandani that he should become a priest.

"I didn't take him seriously, but to my surprise everyone else including my own bishop and spiritual father agreed with him. So I was called to the office of priesthood, not directly by God himself but by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali! It was quite a revelation."

Reluctantly he accepted that call and left Iran to become a political (or religious) refugee in Cyprus.

"I was received by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. During my four years of life as a refugee, God confirmed His calling on my life. At that time, I wish he had not called me. I wanted to obey God, but I did not want to serve Him as a priest. I knew all too well the price one would have to pay, and I was neither ready nor willing to pay that price. I wanted to have a 'normal life', and I knew a clergyman could not enjoy that kind of luxury."

After four years of living as a refugee, waiting for a country to accept him, Canada opened its doors to Khandani in November of 1992. "The call to ministry and my desire to serve God never left me. When I came to Canada I knew that serving God was the only thing I wanted to do. I began taking courses at Wycliffe College, Toronto. I found studying there very challenging. My English was not advanced enough. I didn't have a bachelor's degree and at that time, the level of work and the great amount of reading overwhelmed me."

Within a few weeks he began attending the Iranian church in Toronto and served the Lord in that church for three and half years. "I served in various capacities. I played guitar and led the time of worship, preached, taught, counseled and did the work of an assistant pastor. I started attending Tyndale Bible College after completing my theological studies at Tyndale University College and Seminary I followed with post graduate studies at the Toronto School of Theology (University of Toronto). I was then ordained a Deacon in 2000 and a priested in 2001 in the Diocese of Toronto, in the Anglican Church of Canada." He served under Bishop Terence Finlay, a thorough going, pro-gay bishop.

He later met and married Shirin, who is also from the Anglican Church of Iran. Her parents had become Christians and so she was born into a covenant household. They have two beautiful children.

Being an evangelical in a growing liberal denomination was difficult for the Christian convert, and following a conversation with then archdeacon Rev. Michael Thompson, he saw the writing on the wall, left the diocese of Toronto and became a missionary with two like-minded organizations. He worked with Voice of Christ Media and Sat 7 Pars TV teaching Bible, theology and leadership development for the underground church in Iran.

"My wife and I planted an Iranian church in Richmond Hill, Ontario, made up entirely of converts from Islam. I knew I could never have done it under the care of the Diocese of Toronto as they wanted me to dialogue with Muslims and learn from them and not to preach and make disciples for Christ. The church is now a mission plant of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada. I was licensed by the EFCC, but I still retained my Holy Orders from the ACoC."

"After 14 years of doing this, I was ready to go back to local church ministry as I had grown weary of church planting. I am fighting cancer and it was too much."

While he still had much energy, he had come to know the Bishop of Athabasca, the Rt. Rev. Fraser Lawton who is a member of Gracious Restraint bishops in ACoC. "I knew of a job opening in the Diocese of Athabasca so I applied. His old bishop Colin Johnson told my bishop that 'Fariborz is a passionate evangelist and missionary but he is not always obedient to his bishop.'

"The charge was thrown in my face because right after Muslim fanatics crashed two planes into the twin towers on 9/11 the previous bishop of Toronto, Terence Finlay, (when Johnson was his Archdeacon) invited me to go and learn from an Italian Imam who had converted to Islam from the Catholic Faith. He was going to teach us how wonderful Islam was! In truth he really wanted me there as a token Muslim convert to show me off. I wrote back to my bishop and said that man had left Christ's one holy catholic and apostolic church and had become a heretic. He resented that and I immediately found myself in his bad books. I knew I no longer had a place in the Diocese of Toronto.

"It is no surprise to me that the one vote which overturned the previous vote and caused the amendment to change and the marriage canon to pass had come from the Church's General Secretary, the Rev. Michael Thompson."

Today Khandani is a priest/rector of Christ Church Anglican, Grande Prairie, AB. "We love it here. The people are great and I joyfully obey and follow my godly bishop, The Rt. Rev. Fraser Lawton, as I know he loves and follows the Lord."

END