The Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is Bishop of Chelmsford and a member of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords. She previously served as the first Bishop of Loughborough, in the Diocese of Leicester, from 2017 to 2021. Guli arrived in this country as a refugee from Iran, aged 14. She graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in Music before working for a few years at the BBC in London. She later completed an MA in Religious Studies at Bristol University before training for ordination at The South East Institute for Theological Education. Ordained priest in 1999, Guli served her title in the Diocese of Southwark and has also worked in London and Peterborough Dioceses. She has a doctorate in theology and cross cultural mission, also from Bristol, is the Church of England’s Lead Bishop for Housing and Chair of the Board of Church Army. Guli has written extensively and, among other things, is the author of Cries for a Lost Homeland: Reflections on Jesus’ sayings from the cross and co-author, with Malcolm Guite, of Stations of the Resurrection: Encounters with the risen Christ. Her most recent publication is Listening to the Music of the Soul which was the Archbishop of York’s 2025 Advent Book. Guli is married to Lee, also a priest and they have three young adult children.