✠Jerome Seleisi OSJV
The Most Revd Dr Jerome Lloyd DD OSJV FRSA
Introduction
His Excellency, ✠Jerome is the Titular Archbishop of Selsey and works with Old Roman clergy and religious communities scattered across Europe, with an extended reach to Africa and Asia. In November 2017, in Chicago, USA, he was elected Primus (inter pares) the “first among equals” by his fellow bishops and clergy of the international Old Roman apostolate. This global aspect of his ministry often includes travelling abroad to meet with communities to affirm the faithful, mentor clergy, and administer the sacraments of Confirmation and Ordination.
✠Jerome is a well-known figure in the city of Brighton & Hove, UK, where he is the Administrator of the Brighton Oratory. In November 2018 he became Chair of the Board of Trustees of Brighton & Hove Faith in Action, a registered charity that encourages collaboration between Faith groups in social initiatives and local projects. He also chaired the city’s Faith Council, which administers the Faith Covenant between the local Council and Faith organizations. Additionally, he is the Chair of the Combating Faith Hate Partnership, a founding member of the Upstanders Network, a trustee of the Racial Harassment Forum, a Faith Adviser to the Sussex Police force, and formerly Faith Representative for Community Works. These roles consist of raising awareness of faith-centred issues and organizing activities to collaborate and bring together faith organizations and the wider voluntary, community, and business sectors. Additionally, ✠Jerome is a member of the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE), which monitors the teaching of religion in schools.
In 2009, His Grace co-created The Hub, a homeless drop-in centre in partnership with the Salvation Army. The centre provided food, clothing, showers, and a secure atmosphere to the street people of the city. He was the Chair of Churches Together in Central Brighton from 2010 to 2011, and he served as Secretary between 2014 and 2021. Furthermore, ✠Jerome is the founder and Director of Cherubs Kitchen, a project that provides NVQ cooking apprenticeships and job placements for homeless people. Additionally, he has a growing Music Therapy ministry and chaplaincy to nursing and retirement homes in the vicinity and was an original member of “Peace of Mind – Churches Working Together in Brighton & Hove”, an ecumenical effort focused on congregational awareness of Mental Health. In 2008, he started airing the Traditional Latin Mass daily on the web for the house-bound and dispersed faithful, which has around 150 viewers per day through social media.
Training & skills
✠Jerome has had a thorough education in music and vocal performance. He was classically trained in piano, organ and voice as a baritone. He studied organ with Anne Marsden-Thomas from the International Organ School and Dr Martin Neary from the Royal College of Organists. He also received keyboard and vocal training with the Royal School of Church Music and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. ✠Jerome won a scholarship to study voice and keyboard at the Conservatorio L. Cherubini in Florence and performed professionally under the name “Jerome Lloyd” (née Cave), he also performed as a dramatic actor and was a member of Equity. He has advised various types of choir groups, music groups, and theatrical productions.
✠Jerome read Divinity at y Coleg Diwinyddol Unedig (the United Theological College, Aberystwyth of the Aberystwyth & Lampeter Schools of Theology) where he was acting Director of Music for the College and organist at Llanbadarn Fawr and Holy Trinity churches (the then Vicar, Andrew John is now the Anglican Archbishop of Wales). He then received a Traditional Catholic pre-Conciliar seminary formation on the continent in Switzerland and Italy for a further four years studying theology at Fribourg, Turin and Rome. He has a comprehensive knowledge of Latin and his main academic interests are in Ecclesiology, Liturgy and Canon Law. ✠Jerome is competent in Welsh and French (paternal family ancestry), Cantonese/Mandarin (maternal Chinese/Singaporean ancestry), German, Italian, Spanish (through academia) and English. Upon his episcopal consecration in 2012 he was awarded the substantive degree Doctor of Divinity jure dignitatis by St Jude’s Seminary (Toronto) and in 2018 he was additionally awarded the degree Doctor of Divinity honoris causa by St Francis of Assisi Seminary (Chicago).
To finance his secondary and tertiary education, ✠Jerome leveraged his passion for food by working in hospitality and leisure businesses on a part-time or full-time basis and taking part in accredited courses. He eventually earned a City & Guilds professional qualification. This enabled him to pay for his educational expenses domestically and overseas, in addition to acquiring different chefing abilities that would eventually help him in his ministry.
Ecclesiastical career
In 2005, ✠Jerome became a founding member of the Society of St John Vianney and subsequently of the Oratory of St John Vianney two years later. He is devoted to employing the spirituality and enthusiasm for the ministry of the holy Curé D’Ars in his work as a pastoral priest. The Oratory is a collection of secular Clergy of regular observance, who aspire to the spiritual life and calling of St John Vianney, the Patron Saint of Parish Priests. In 2005, ✠Jerome was selected to be Rector of Formation and, a year later, Vicar General of the Province of Europe and an assistant chaplain at the Community of the King of Love retreat centre in Derbyshire’s High Peak district. In 2007, His Grace assumed residence as the Provost of the Mother House of the Oratory of St John Vianney at Cosgrove, Northamptonshire. Finally, in 2008, he returned to Brighton to establish the Brighton Oratory.
Episcopal election
On January 1st, 2012, the then Fr Jerome was elected regionary Bishop-Elect for Europe. After gaining the approval of the region’s clergy and the testimonies of ecumenical referees, ✠Boniface Grosvold (memory eternal) of Canada and ✠Jean-Marie Denis Ngodobo of Cameroon consecrated Monsignor Lloyd as the Titular Archbishop of Selsey on May 5th, 2012, the feast of St. Pius V. With the permission of the Anglican Bishop of Huron, who was represented by the diocesan Precentor, Canon William Cliff (now the Anglican Bishop of Ontario, Canada), the Consecration took place at the Collegiate Chapel of St John the Evangelist, Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada and was noted in the Register of Services held there. On the 26th of May, 2012, ✠Jerome’s episcopal ministry was officially inaugurated during a service attended by ecumenical witnesses and a large congregation in the Brighton Congress Hall.
The UK Passport Office, in cooperation with Buckingham Palace and the British Home Office, did an exhaustive investigation into the episcopal consecration of His Grace and – due to the public nature of the episcopacy – ordered changed His Grace’s family title and surname to “Titular Archbishop of Selsey” for the Information/Photo Page of his passport. Moreover, His Grace’s full name and ecclesiastical title are provided on the Observation’s Page, thus allowing for a legal identification through his title. Consequently, His Grace has become the first bishop recognized by The Crown to possess the titular title of the See of Selsey, which had been established by St Wilfrid of York in 680 AD and was dissolved under its final bishop, Stigand, with the cathedra being transferred to the new See at Chichester in 1075. ✠Jerome is the twenty-seventh successor to St Wilfrid.
In November 2017 during the synod in Chicago, ✠Jerome was elected Primus, for the Old Roman apostolate worldwide. Additionally, His Grace is the Servant Superior of the Congregation of the Divine Charity, the umbrella congregation for Old Roman religious and apostolic life. His responsibilities include the governance and oversight of religious and consecrated persons within the communion and the promotion of religious life.
Persecuted Christians
✠Jerome has had a long-standing passion for aiding persecuted Christians, especially those in the Middle East. He has been trying to make people in the West aware of the difficulties Syrian Christians (living in the city of Damascus, home to the headquarters of the Patriarchate of Antioch & All the East) are facing due to the conflict. In 2009, before the major Syrian crisis, he brought a Syrian refugee who was working as a taxi driver in Brighton to a Churches Together in Central Brighton meeting; he wanted the people there to hear firsthand accounts of the issues Christians in Syria experienced as a result of the rebels. In 2015, Lord Laird of Artigarvan invited ✠Jerome to be a keynote speaker at a House of Lords debate on the Syrian Refugee crisis. Recently, he has been working hard to provide a warm welcome to Syrian Refugees in Brighton (which has been declared a “City of Sanctuary”), offering them help and support in the city.
For many years His Grace has combined vacations and pilgrimages to visit the Middle East to appreciate the cultural tensions and encourage Christians living there. In March 2017 he visited Turkey where religious tensions are rising due to the crisis in Syria and Christians are emigrating, and he addressed local Christians and pilgrims in the House of Mary at Ephesus. On Good Friday 2017 he hosted Canon Andrew White for Churches Together in Central Brighton and interviewed him about the situation in the Middle East.
Other experience
✠Jerome has had a great deal of experience in both work and leisure, having been a restaurateur and licensee. His expertise has also extended to Human Resource Management, Health & Safety, retail and marketing, and Food Hygiene, and he was a former member of the Federation of Small Businesses. In addition, he was also a Trade Union Representative in the Public & Commercial Services Union, and a Staff Sports & Leisure Association Rep’ in the Civil Service (Department for Work & Pensions). He has worked as an Employment Advisor, a Marketing and Business liaison in Sussex & Surrey, and as a consultant in IT Project Management and support in London & South East England. All this knowledge has enabled him to act as an industrial chaplain to multiple companies in the city.
Founding his own performance agency and production company, LRAPA Productions in 2002 whilst on sabbatical, he later produced various productions of both music and fringe theatre in the Brighton Festivals 2003/04/05. The then Father Jerome performed at the Brighton Royal Pavilion, the Brighton Dome and Theatre Royal both as a musician and as a singer/actor and consulted as a musical director on a variety of performances both amateur and professional. As the first Chair of The Friends of St Andrews, Waterloo Street he also helped to establish the then redundant St Andrew’s Church as a community centre and performance venue with monthly “Friday night is music night” concerts showcasing local performance artists.
Philanthropy
✠Jerome is widely known in Brighton & Hove due to his efforts to raise funds for local charities with the aid of his many talents, such as walking a tightrope for Sussex Beacon HIV/AIDS Hospice in 2009 (as seen in the video above). After the passing of the Revd Roly Baines, ✠Jerome earned the affection and trust of the circus performers and was consequently became the chaplain of Zippos Circus. He has often performed at the Mayor of Brighton & Hove’s annual Charity Gala along with celebrities Dame Vera Lynn (St Dunstan’s home for blind war veterans) and Dame Felicity Lott (for Radios in Hospitals). He even made an appearance as “a Dame” himself! Additionally, he served as the Director of the Choir of the former Dome Mission at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church for five years and revived the annual ecumenical “Messiah from scratch” and Stainer’s “The Crucifixion” performances, which he had previously conducted while studying in Aberystwyth. Furthermore, since 2010, he has been the Musical Director of the annual Rottingdean Drama Society pantomime, and the Brighton Revue Company since 2013 (following the late John Gould).
In 2013, ✠Jerome made use of his knowledge in the hospitality business and created the “Cherubs Kitchen” franchise apostolate, inspired by the homeless drop-in he joined forces with Majors Mark & Tracy Bearcroft at Brighton Congress Hall in 2009. Noticing that some of the visitors had expertise in cooking, he figured out a way for such people to get back to work. “Cherubs Kitchen” ran commercial franchise operations in the city offering work experience and work rehabilitation programs as well as NVQ apprenticeships in professional catering. The proceeds from the franchises were directed towards various homeless support projects all over the city. Sadly the franchises fell victim to the COVID pandemic lockdowns.
COVID19
During the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2021), ✠Jerome was involved in the coordination of relief efforts by faith groups in the Brighton & Hove region for the homeless, elderly, lonely and isolated, organizing a weekly Zoom gathering and sending out information through a weekly newsletter. He also went to weekly meetings with other public leaders, relaying information from public health bodies, local government bodies, and other voluntary agencies. Throughout this time, he continued to broadcast his daily Mass and made it possible for the faithful locally to receive Holy Communion and other sacraments. In addition, he imparted his knowledge and best practice guidance to colleagues worldwide in the Old Roman apostolate and produced devotional, catechetical and informational programmes by creating the Old Roman TV YouTube channel and theoldroman.com website. His Grace was also one of a handful of bishops globally who supported those who felt in conscience unable to take the MRA vaccine and issued letters in support of religious conscientious objection based on the research components in the development of some of the vaccines.
Today…
Today ✠Jerome’s work continues to include oversight of the worldwide Old Roman apostolate, with frequent visits abroad to pastor the faithful and clergy. He continues to produce and air programmes on Old Roman TV. In his local area, he is still concentrating on social cohesion initiatives through Brighton & Hove Faith in Action and working to prevent faith and race hatred as a trustee of the Brighton & Hove Racial Harassment Forum, and he helped form and launch a Third Party Reporting Centre for faith or race hate-related incidents. He still coordinates efforts supporting people experiencing homelessness and strategies to prevent it. He also provides advice to the Police and NHS on matters related to faith and cultural diversity, and the City Council to support the homeless, asylum seekers and refugees.
✠Jerome’s personal interests include languages, traveling, reading (favourite author Ellis Peters) classical music, theatre and performance, art and culture, anthropology, history and writing. The Archbishop willingly admits to liking Sci-fi though he is not a “Trekky”! His Grace is also appreciated by his ministerial colleagues, friends and family alike as a keen chef whose famous “Spaghetti Carbonara” is a signature dish learnt from a formation sponsor family in Rome, the recipe of which is a highly guarded secret!
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