Romero Lecture 2024

The Archbishop Romero Trust engages someone every year to do a short speaking tour.

This year the speaker is Raymond Perrier. Raymond is Director the Hurley Institute in South Africa. The lecture will be held at Leeds Trinity University.

The theme for his talk is

‘Prayerful and Prophetic Resilience in the Face of Injustice – Archbishops Oscar Romero and Denis Hurley’.

Use the button to register to attend this free event organised by SPARK Social Justice in partnership with the J&P Commission and Leeds Trinity University

Dr Raymond Perrier Biography

Since 2015, Raymond has been the founding Director of the Denis Hurley Centre – a community centre in the heart of Durban South Africa which brings together different faith groups to help the poor and marginalised of the city. This landmark building has established its reputation as a place of care, education and community, responding to issues of refugees, drug addiction and homelessness.
Raymond is also involved in different networks working to help transform inner-city Durban; he has been Chair of the Municipal Task Team on Homelessness, helped set up South Africa’s National Homeless Network, and is part of the team drafting a national policy on homelessness for South Africa. He also works as a consultant to the Global Interfaith Network which provides theological resources for religious leaders in the Global South who wish to look at questions of LGBTI inclusion.
For 5 years, Raymond was Director of the Jesuit Institute – South Africa, working to bring a faith perspective to debates on social issues. He also designed and facilitated courses in values-based leadership delivered at several South African and US business schools.
For 6 years, Raymond was a trainee Jesuit priest. This included 2 years living and working in a refugee camp in Uganda with the Jesuit Refugee Service serving 60,000 Sudanese refugees with pastoral support and education. After leaving the Jesuits, Raymond became the Head of Communities for CAFOD working with Catholic parishes and schools across the country.
Raymond’s initial professional experience was in marketing consultancy, working for Interbrand with companies such as American Express, British Airways, IBM and BP. He developed with Business Week an annual league table of the world’s most valuable brands and pioneered a global consulting practice in brand valuation. He was Managing Director of the New York office of Interbrand with a staff of 160.
Of Indian parents, Raymond was born and educated in the UK. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Theology from New College, Oxford; an MA in Philosophy from the University of London; and an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics. He recently completed a PhD with the University of KwaZulu-Natal writing about Paddy Kearney (the founder of the DHC and a renowned Struggle activist). He is also a Research Associate at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Faith and Community and a frequent writer and commentator in newspapers, on radio and television, including a regular column in ‘The Southern Cross’ (SA’s national Catholic newspaper).