Housing the poor and destitute used to be what the Church of England was all about, but in recent years it has arguably become better known for selling off land to the highest bidder.The Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, is determined to do something about that.</span>As England's first Bishop for Housing, she is spearheading efforts to build affordable homes on church land and campaigning for long-term solutions to what Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby believes is one of the biggest crises facing the country.As a former refugee, Bishop Guli understands the importance of a stable, secure home.Her family was forced to flee Iran - where her father Hassan Dehqani-Tafti was an Anglican bishop - in 1980, in the wake of the Islamic revolution."I arrived in this country, aged 14, initially as a refugee, someone who had just lost home in the fullest sense of its terms - both our physical home, which was confiscated by the authorities, but also home in terms of where your roots are, your country of origin and so on," she tells me.The family settled in Hampshire, and slowly came to terms with the fact that they would not be returning to their home country.She came to appreciate that home is "where we find our place of belonging, it's where we feel safe, where we can build stability and community," she says."It's all of those things, and I suppose in my teenage years I experienced the kind of profound injustice of having that torn away, frankly."And the journey for me has been about using that in my role, and in my ministry, in such a way that is life-giving, rather than turning me bitter and angry and in on myself."She made history in 2017, when she became the first woman from an ethnic minority to be ordained as an Anglican bishop and later this year will take up a seat in the House of Lords.Bishop Guli admits to hesitating a little when Justin Welby offered her the newly created housing role last year, as it was not exactly her specialist subject.But she says the archbishop's vision - based on Coming Home, a Church report on the housing crisis published earlier this year - chimes with "my own passion for social justice and the Church's involvement in the public sphere".The Church of England can't solve the housing crisis on it is own, she argues.That will take long-term government action.But she believes the Church has a moral duty to do what it can, given that it is sitting on such a large amount of under-used land.And she is determined to ensure that Coming Home does not join the ranks of other well-meaning reports "gathering dust on the shelf".
“We followed all the rules. We were really careful, washing the shopping, washing our hands, but it is highly transmissible,” Reverend Jo Haines (see photo) said. At first she experienced it as a bad bout of flu. ‘It was after 10 days that my breathing started to be affected, I was getting very short of breath. I spent about three days in bed laid on my front because it was really the only way I could breathe. I lay there and prayed.” While the rest of her family recovered, for Revd Jo the illness continued for months with breathlessness, a recurring fever, fatigue and muscle pains.Revd Jo is Team Vicar of Emmanuel and St Mary’s Church in Weymouth, Dorset. She had another set back to her health recently as a result of the virus, with the return of the fever.‘Long Covid means that my body seems unable to regulate its temperature” she said. “I’m fine cognitively but if I put too much physical demand on my body I get a high fever, fatigue, and my joints become stiff and ache.”She pays tribute to the support of her congregations, colleagues, retired clergy and lay ministers, alongside the support from the Diocese of Salisbury. A mental health nurse in her former profession and more used to being a care giver than a patient, Revd Jo says “living with Long Covid has highlighted the importance of well being, something that should be a priority for all clergy and lay ministers anyway.”
Devon Pilgrim offers people the chance to “take a journey of the heart” on routes which include Dartmoor and the ancient seat of the bishops of Exeter at Crediton.Each pilgrimage is divided into sections which start and end at a church, so they can be walked in one go over several days or in shorter segments.The churches all have a ‘pilgrim corner’ with prayers and meditations for people to engage with and a pilgrim stamp for walkers to mark their progress in specially designed Pilgrim Passports.The Bishop of Exeter, Robert Atwell, said “We associate pilgrimage with the medieval world but in our generation, we have rediscovered its grace.“People of all backgrounds are walking the ancient paths and, in so doing, entering upon a journey of the heart.“Many of them are discovering that God walks with them in their life.”Devon Pilgrim is part of Growing the Rural Church, a Diocese of Exeter project to help rural churches to be sustainable for the future and to engage with their local communities creatively.It is supported by a £1m Church of England Strategic Development Fund grant.Sarah Cracknell, Growing the Rural Church Project Manager, said “Pilgrimage is having a resurgence, whether it is the Celtic idea of the inner journey or the medieval tradition of travelling to a specific place to seek help or ask for direction.”
