Church of England bishops play an historic and important part in the debates within the House of Lords.

Here Patrick Kidd describes a recent maiden speech by the Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, that had a stunning impact on her audience.

Kidd described the Bishop Guli's speech as "a powerful and very personal debut from Chelmsford that had several peers wiping away tears and saying it was the finest they had heard."

He went on: "It was in a debate on the fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been imprisoned in Iran for five years on a trumped-up charge of plotting to topple the government.

"Chelmsford knew all about persecution in Iran, where she was born. Her mother was injured in an attempt on the life of her father, a Christian convert who was bishop of their community; their home was ransacked and her brother murdered. Guli Francis-Dehqani, as she became, fled the country in her teens. 'None of this has left me bitter or with ill will towards my homeland or my countryfolk,' she told peers. 'I retain a deep love for Iran and her people, and a desire to work for reconciliation across all the divides we create as human beings.'

"As for Zaghari-Ratcliffe, she had been used as an innocent pawn, Chelmsford said, in the power struggles between Britain and Iran. She appealed to the government to apply the 'British values of compassion, tolerance and justice” and settle the financial debt that Iran claims it is owed. If Britain acted with integrity and decency, she said, Iran would reply with honour and respect.

"'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,' she concluded, quoting the Prophet Amos, words adopted by Martin Luther King. Few would disagree with the sentiment. The problem is that the river of justice and righteousness has a frustrating habit of running into the dam of politics."

<span style="font-size: 1rem; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Patrick Kidd is editor of The Times diary column and author of  The Weak Are A Long Time In Politics</span>