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Bishop Guli speaking with a mum in a church

Bishop of Chelmsford

The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani

About Bishop Guli

The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani has served as Bishop of Chelmsford since April 2021.

Chelmsford is the second largest diocese in the Church of England in terms of population and serves the communities of Essex and East London. In January 2021, Bishop Guli 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.

Between 2017 and 2021, Bishop Guli served as the first Bishop of Loughborough in the Diocese of Leicester. As well as assisting the Bishop of Leicester across the Diocese, her specific responsibilities included overseeing and supporting the vocations of those called to lay and ordained ministries. Before she became Bishop of Loughborough, Bishop Guli led Curate training in the Diocese of Peterborough.

Bishop Guli is currently Chair of the Board of the Church Army. She has written extensively, including two recent books, Cries for a Lost Homeland: Reflections on Jesus’ sayings from the cross and Stations of the Resurrection: Encounters with the risen Christ.

Born in Iran, Guli’s family left the country in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1980, 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.

Books by Bishop Guli

Titles written by Bishop Guli are listed below.

Videos

A selection of the latest videos featuring Bishop Guli are below.

To view more videos please visit our YouTube page

Media gallery images

Contact information

General enquiries

Please click to email the members of staff below.
Higher Executive Officer: Jo Bluck-Plummer
Senior Secretary: Mrs Jane Carter

Chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford

The Revd Dr Rachel Pennant

Send an email to the Bishop's Chaplain

Communications and Media enquiries

Tom Geldard
Director of Communications & Media
Tel 07903831967
Send an email to the Communications team

Enquiries relating to Bishop Guli's role as Bishop for Housing

For enquiries relating to Bishop Guli’s national role as Lead Bishop for Housing for the Church of England, please contact Jonathan Tame, Advisor on Housing and Community.

Send an email to Jonathan - usual working days Monday to Thursday

Bishop Guli’s role for housing

The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is the national Lead Bishop for housing. In this role, Bishop Guli leads efforts to implement the recommendations of the Coming Home Report, the report of the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing, Church and Community.

Current Church of England housing work

The Church of England is working on several fronts in response to the housing crisis. The Bishop for Housing helped launch the Homes for All campaign in April 2024, with wide support from the housing sector. It calls on the main political parties to commit to a long term vision for housing, backed up by a national housing strategy committee.

The Archbishops’ Council has set up a housing project to provide advice and support to parishes and dioceses who are interested in using some of their land or property to meet housing need. The project includes a grants programme to help PCCs explore the feasibility and viability of potential housing projects, and a mapping tool for dioceses.

The Church Development Agency is leading a major pilot project across the greater West Midlands area to take forward housing projects on behalf of parishes and dioceses. They are working in partnership with the new Church Housing Association, which is providing homes for social rent, primarily on church sites, and includes pastoral and community support from local churches.

The Church Commissioners are bringing forward substantial new developments that help to address housing need, through mixed tenure developments that adopt the five Coming Home principles: sustainable, safe, stable, sociable, and satisfying. Where possible, the Commissioners also seek to go further than local plans mandate, for example via the delivery of Rural Exception Sites where they can provide a higher proportion of affordable housing.

Several dioceses are also stepping up the delivery of affordable housing on their land, to manage their assets in a way that better reflects God’s concern for people in need of decent, affordable homes.

All this is just the start though; more needs to be done in and through the Church to make a just and appropriate response to the housing crisis, including growing a broad movement for change under the Church Housing Foundation. The Bishop for Housing and others are continuing to press for institutional reforms and more resources in pursuit of this transformative vision: to ensure everyone has access to a decent, safe and affordable home in a thriving community.