9 October 2025
Today's announcement of a Gaza peace deal coincides with news that the young Palestinian Christian woman, Layan Nasir, has been sentenced to a further eight months in prison by an Israeli court. The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev'd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, is inviting people across Chelmsford Diocese to join her in praying for Layan's release.
Bishop Guli has once again lit a candle in her Chapel which will remain burning until Layan’s release. She and her family will be prayed for daily.
Layan Nasir was detained for eight months last year by Israeli forces. During a visit to the Holy Land in 2024, Bishop Guli spent time with Layan’s mother, Lulu, and older brother Kamal, who are members of St Peter’s Anglican Church in the town of Birzeit. They told her how Layan was seized in a dawn raid and taken into “administrative detention” - a system in which people can be taken into custody without evidence being presented against them.
After returning to the UK, Bishop Guli kept a candle burning in her chapel and pledged to pray for Layan every day until her release, remembering also all those held in detention in places of conflict, including the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Layan was eventually released in December last year. In August this year, ahead of her court case, Bishop Guli joined the Bishops of Southwark, Norwich and Gloucester in writing a letter of support for Layan in which they said “We can only imagine the anxiety and stress that you are feeling and we want to reassure you that you and your family are very much in our thoughts and prayers,”
“It would be a travesty if your rehabilitation and reintegration back into society is interrupted by a further custodial sentence on a spurious charge from over four years ago. We earnestly pray that a plea deal can be negotiated with the court that avoids such an outcome.”
Speaking today, about the news of Layan’s prison sentence, Bishop Guli said:
“This is devastating news for Layan and her family. I invite everyone in Chelmsford Diocese to join me in praying for her release and for an end to this injustice, which is all the more bitter against the backdrop of the encouraging news about today’s Gaza peace deal”