20 June 2025
This week (16-22 June) is Refugee week. The Right Revd Dr Guli Francis – Dehqani, the Bishop of Chelmsford, has recorded a special message. Across the country and our diocese, events and activities have been organised to mark the week including at Chelmsford Cathedral which hosted a coffee morning for all those involved in the Chelmsford Integration Project.
Bishop Guli: “Our communities have the power to bring people together and bridge divides.”
In a reflection for this year's Refugee Week, Bishop Guli shares how our faith and acts of kindness can make a big difference to the lives of people in our communities.
Watch Bishop Guli's video message below.
Chelmsford Cathedral coffee morning
To mark Refugee Week, Chelmsford Cathedral hosted a coffee morning for clients, volunteers, and partners of the Chelmsford Integration Project, an Ideas Hub’s initiative. They were joined by members of the Cathedral congregation for an informal conversation over hot drinks and delicious home-made cakes and given a tour of the Cathedral.
Olivia Maxfield-Coote, one of the Cathedral’s Priests said:
“The theme of this year's Refugee Week is Community as a Superpower. Through the simple act of hospitality, we wanted to work with Ideas Hub to make connections across our city and build community by listening, learning, laughing together over cake.”
Refugee Week continues until Sunday 22nd June. Amnesty International has a display in the Cathedral with further information about how simple acts of shared generosity can be multiplied to become an unstoppable force!
More information
Refugee Week
Refugee Week is an annual festival celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. It highlights the experiences, challenges and contributions of refugees across the world.
The theme this year is ‘Community as a Superpower.’
Share your events
If your parish or worshipping community has events planned for Refugee Week, we'd love to hear from you. Send details and photos from your events to communicationsdept@chelmsford.anglican.org
