Michael Ramsey Lecture 2026: Listening to the Music of the Soul,

Some reflections on how music and the arts can help transform our pain and enable us to engage with the complexities of life and faith.

The talk is presented by The Michael Ramsey Professor of Faith, Culture and the Arts, Canterbury Cathedral, and the University of Kent

Tickets are £6.00, or free for Students in full time education.

The Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is Bishop of Chelmsford and a member of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords. She previously served as the first Bishop of Loughborough, in the Diocese of Leicester, from 2017 to 2021. Guli arrived in this country as a refugee from Iran, aged 14. She graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in Music before working for a few years at the BBC in London. She later completed an MA in Religious Studies at Bristol University before training for ordination at The South East Institute for Theological Education. Ordained priest in 1999, Guli served her title in the Diocese of Southwark and has also worked in London and Peterborough Dioceses. She has a doctorate in theology and cross cultural mission, also from Bristol, is the Church of England’s Lead Bishop for Housing and Chair of the Board of Church Army. Guli has written extensively and, among other things, is the author of Cries for a Lost Homeland: Reflections on Jesus’ sayings from the cross and co-author, with Malcolm Guite, of Stations of the Resurrection: Encounters with the risen Christ. Her most recent publication is Listening to the Music of the Soul which was the Archbishop of York’s 2025 Advent Book. Guli is married to Lee, also a priest and they have three young adult children.

Revd Prof Jonathan Arnold, Michael Ramsey Chair of Faith, Culture and the Arts, Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries, University of Kent; Director of the Social Justice Network, Diocese of Canterbury