Description: The Archbishop of York's Advent Book 2025
Brief description:
Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is Bishop of Chelmsford, having previously been Bishop of Loughborough. In January 2021, she was also appointed as the Lead Bishop for Housing for the Church of England, and she has served as a member of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords since November 2021. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4s Thought for the Day.
Born in Iran, Guli's family left the country in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in1980, when she was 13 years old, and to date she has been unable to return. She is married to Lee, also a priest and they have three children. She is based in UK.
Review Quotes: 'She was speaking at her official bishop's residence in the Essex village of Margaretting before the publication of her book for Advent, called Listening to the Music of the Soul' and 'Her book notes, however, that the Church of England must get used to being "Smaller, less influential and more marginal" and warned against targets that "heap pressure on clergy and congregations to grow and increase in size". She said churches should simply be encouraged to be "places of resonance where the weary find rest and refreshment"'--The Times