BAY CITY, Mich. (RNS) The Bible speaks of a prophet named Jonah who gets swallowed by a whale and taken to Nineveh to deliver God’s word.

The Rev. Jonah Salim’s story is somewhat different: It tells of an Iraqi Christian pastor from Nineveh, who travels by plane to the United States to spread a new message of hope and peace.

Salim, 33, a political refugee and missionary on staff at First Presbyterian Church in Bay City, on Tuesday (Feb. 3) became the first Iraqi minister ever to be transferred onto the clergy roster of the Presbyterian Church (USA–.

“Today, your action confirms that we are all equals in God’s eyes,” Salim said, addressing a crowd of more than 100 representatives from the Presbytery of Lake Huron, who met to vote on accepting a transfer of Salim’s ordination from an Egyptian seminary.

Salim only needed a three-fourths majority vote, but the decision was made unanimously in his favor. Salim is the first native Iraqi minister in the church’s history, officials at church headquarters in Louisville, Ky., confirmed.

Salim fled to the United States two years ago as a political and religious refugee, escaping what he feared would be persecution from Muslim extremists in his native Iraq. He landed in Bay City in late 2007 and was granted asylum to stay in the United States as a refugee last June.

The Rev. Jeffrey Weenink, head pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Bay City, invited Salim to come work under him.

“It’s a momentous day — a fulfillment of a long envisioned sense of call,” Weenink said of Salim’s acceptance. “This adds that certification and that level of legitimacy in the eyes of the denomination.”