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”The quest for authenticity has been a hallmark of Guli’s journey since she arrived in this country as a refugee forty years ago… She has an extraordinary ability to hear the music not only of the soul but of the future, and emboldens us to dance to it today.”
BISHOP ROBERT ATWELL
When it comes to inhabiting life fully, Mary is surely one of our greatest role models. ‘My soul magnifies the Lord,’ she sings in the Magnificat. Her spirited response to the Angel Gabriel’s announcement that she is to bear the son of God is rich in nuance, contradiction and paradox.
These very characteristics inspire Bishop Guli to make connections between the themes of Advent and her own experiences – and to invite us to do the same.
Bishop Guli’s forced exile from her homeland has echoes of the flight into Egypt; the murder of her brother Bahram during the Iranian Revolution of the slaughter of the innocents. She writes intriguingly of how angels continue speaking to us today; how fear can prevent us from living well in the present; how pain and loss can be transformed by the power of beauty.
Deepening its resonance, each chapter is linked to a piece of music, prompting us to consider: what are the enduring melodies that sustain us as the vibrant stories of our lives unfold?
Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is Bishop of Chelmsford, having previously been Bishop of Loughborough. In January 2021, she was appointed 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 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.
