The "Year of St. Paul" Prompts Turkish Government to Consider Returning Church to Christians

Leaders of the Christian community in Turkey are asking the government for the return of the early medieval St. Paul's church in the city of Tarsus.

The report comes from Barnabas Aid, a Christian ministry that reaches out to members of the persecuted church worldwide.

The report said the request follows a year in which hundreds of church groups asked for permission to hold worship services in the historic building.

The building was confiscated from Christians in 1943 to be used as a state museum, the report said.

But fee-paying Christians were allowed to use it for services with permission granted on a year-by-year basis. Then from June 2008 to June 2009, during the "Year of St. Paul," a record 416 Christian groups from 30 different countries visited Tarsus, prompting the Turkish government to extend indefinitely its consent for Christian services there.

"For the first time, Turkish Muslims have witnessed Christians, not as tourists, but as praying pilgrims, whose devotion has made a lasting impression on the Turkish people," one Christian leader told Barnabas Aid.

According to the New Testament, Paul was a Roman Jew, a member of the tribe of Benjamin born in the ancient city of Tarsus located in modern-day Turkey.

He began his career persecuting Christians but then converted to Christianity after being temporarily blinded by God on the road to Damascus.

He is known as the apostle to the Gentiles and wrote about half of the books in the New Testament.