Trustees

Father Jerome as he is more commonly known in the city of Brighton & Hove is the Provost and Administrator of the Brighton Oratory. He was elected a Vice-chair of the BHFA Board of Trustees in November 2018 and is Chair of the Combatting Faith Hate Partnership. In 2009 he co-founded The Hub homeless drop-in in partnership with the Salvation Army. He is a former Chair (2010-2011) of Churches Together in Central Brighton and has been its Secretary since 2014. He is also founder and Director of Cherubs Kitchen, an apostolate providing NVQ catering apprenticeships and work placements. Metropolitan Jerome also has a developing Music Therapy ministry and chaplaincy to nursing and retirement homes in the city and surrounding areas. In 2008 he began broadcasting daily Mass on the internet for the housebound and dispersed faithful, attracting approx 150 viewers a day through Facebook. Metropolitan Jerome is the Titular Archbishop of Selsey and Metropolitan of the Province of Europe of the Orthodox Old Roman Catholic Communion with responsibility for Western Orthodox clergy and faith communities dispersed across the continent of Europe.

Simon is a co-founder of the BHFA and a leader of City Coast Church, where he has been involved as a team member for a street feeding programme, the management of CityCoast Centre and community projects run by the church. He has been involved in the voluntary and community sector for the past 20 years, during which time, he has worked with many diverse parts of the community including faith groups, people with dependencies, children and young people, older people and members of the black and minority ethnic community. He also serves as a Trustee of both his Church and Community Works where he sits on the board of the Faith Partnership and is a former representative on the Healthy City Partnership for Brighton and Hove. He is the Chair of Churches Together in Portslade.

Rik studied chemistry at Oxford and began his career in research and environmental issues. He opened and ran the first Brighton & Hove Green Party office in the city and campaigned during the 1999 Election and was elected to the Council forming the first Green Group. Rik played a key roll in the selection of Caroline Lucas who later became the first UK Green MP. He has considerable experience in the charity sector gained both in the management of charities and as a trustee. Formerly the Director of Brighthelm Church and Community Centre, a United Reformed Church building and project set right in the heart of Brighton. Rik was elected Chair for a second term in November 2018 representing his faith community, Brighton Vineyard Church, but due to work commitments stepped down in March 2019.

Mahmut is Regional Director of the Dialogue Society leading a dedicated team of volunteers in Brighton and in other towns and cities in the South of England. The Dialogue Society is a registered charity, established in London in 1999, with the aim of advancing social cohesion by connecting communities through dialogue. It operates nation-wide with regional branches across the UK. It was founded by British Muslims of Turkish background inspired by the teachings and example of Muslim scholar and peace advocate Fethullah Gülen.  The Dialogue Society aims to facilitate dialogue on a whole range of social issues, regardless of any particular faith or religion.

Mahmut is also involved with the Fellowship Educational Society which aims to encourage the social integration of the Turkish-speaking community within the society they live in. The Fellowship Educational Society is a South-England based registered charity which is working to enable and empower young people through their education. The Fellowship provides grants and assistance to individual children/young people or projects improving their educational performance and helping them gain valuable skills and qualifications that will appeal to employers.

Sabri is Vice Chair of the Brighton & Hove Muslim Forum a non profit organisation hoping to serve the religious, social, and cultural needs of the Brighton & Hove Muslim Community. BHMF’s primary aim is to provide support and weekend activities for Muslim children and to work and assist with projects for Muslim women. BHMF was established in January 2004, after a conference in Brighton hosted by The University of Sussex Islamic Society. This historic event formed the first ever committee which later became known as the Brighton and Hove Muslim Forum. The committee which now consists of 13 voluntary members, from the three mosques in Brighton & Hove, Sussex Muslim Women’s Group and the Islamic Society of Brighton and Sussex University. BHMF acts as a liaison for the mosques in order to address concerns of the diverse Muslim community. Integral to this role is BHMF mission to educate others about the Islamic faith. Aside from his work in the community, Sabri is also the proprietor of the very popular Sahara Restaurant on Western Rd and hosts a great many events for community projects providing hospitality and conviviality.

Fiona is a Communities Consultant for the Sussex Jewish Representative Council which provides a central contact point for all Jewish organisations in Sussex. SJRC is affiliated to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The SJRC remit is to act as the presiding body of the Sussex Jewish community, as an umbrella organisation embracing all synagogues and Jewish organisations within the Sussex area and to protect and further the interests of the Sussex Jewish community. The Council offers the community the opportunity to work as one and acts as the voice of the local Jewish community. Fiona is also closely involved with the Brighton & Hove Jewish Welfare Board (established in 1846) that has been providing financial assistance to Jewish people living in Sussex for almost two hundred years. Fiona is also a Management Committee member of Galvanise a homeless project in Brighton & Hove.

Rabbi Dr Andrea Zanardo was one of the founders of the first Reform Congregation in Italy in the 1990s. Right from an early age he took great pleasure in synagogue life and as a result he decided to make it his vocation. Therefore he began the journey from University lecturer in Social History to Rabbi. He thus turned himself into a Theological student, and was admitted to the Rabbinical Programme at Leo Baeck College, where he received semich in July 2012. In addition to experiencing Leo Baeck College, Rabbi Andrea lived and studied in Boston and Jerusalem, at The Hebrew Union College, and at the Conservative Yeshiva. Together with his wife Sara, and two children, Dov Daniel and Yair Yisrael he moved to Hove, to take up the position of Rabbi at Brighton & Hove Reformed Synagogue in September 2012. His daughter Hila Hadar Chaya was born in Brighton in 2015.

After studying theology at Oxford and Bristol, Martin was formerly Rector of St Michael’s Without in the city centre of Bath for seventeen years and Rural Dean of Bath for four years before his appointment to the Diocese of Chichester as the first Archdeacon of Brighton & Lewes in 2014. The archdeaconry consists of the deaneries of Brighton, Hove, Lewes and Seaford. Archdeacons work with the bishops and with deaneries in the diocese as well as assisting in the day-to-day running of the church through its boards and committees.

Other Faiths

The BHFA has invited members of other faiths to join our board of trustees and that invitation remains open. Those faiths include, but are not restricted to Bahai, Brahma Kumaris, Pagan, Scientology, Spiritualist and Hindu religions.