In this paper, we present a new low-complexity iterative joint phase estimation and decoding algorithm which can be applied to low-density-parity-check (or turbo) codes for channels affected by strong phase noise. The algorithm exhibits a very good performance and a very low complexity even in strong phase noise, high code rate, and high-order constellations. The proposed algorithm works by first obtaining a preliminary pilots-aided phase estimation. Next, the expressions for the belief propagation messages are approximated around that reference and reduced to a Gaussian canonical form. This results in a simple closed form of a recursive update. Simulations results for phase-shift-keying modulation of size 8 and quadrature-amplitude modulation of size 64 are presented and compared with other algorithms in the literature.