Tucked away in Glodwick, Oldham, is a church so small you don’t even notice it.
Bethel Church, a gospel-centred evangelical church in Waterloo Street, has all the usual activities one would expect in churches today: prayer meetings, Sunday services, after-school activities and so on. But what makes the place so intriguing is that it is home to a very diverse congregation, especially a growing Iranian Christian community fleeing from persecution.
There are about 20 Iranian and Afghan Christian asylum-seekers who attend the church on a regular basis. The majority of them live in Oldham, with some coming from neighbouring towns.
