The President/CEO of SSIDP, Mr. James Lomole Simeon, who prefers to be called “Lomole”, is a lawyer. He worked as government attorney in the Attorney General’s Chambers in Khartoum, north Sudan, and later in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Juba, South Sudan. Mr. Lomole held various positions in the South Sudan Regional government. He started as Assistant Legal Counsel, until he reached the position of Senior Legal Counsel.

He was elected Political Secretary for Juba and Terekeka Districts (Juba Central Area Council). After decentralization of the then Southern Region, Lomole became the Senior Legal Counsel for Equatoria Regional Government. He was appointed Deputy Secretary General for Political, Social, and Economic Affairs in Equatoria State Council of Ministers Secretariat.

While holding senior positions in government, Mr. Lomole was appointed by the Episcopal Council (House of Bishops) as the Chancellor of the Province of the Episcopal, Church of the Sudan. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sudan Development and Relief Agency of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS/SUDRA).

Lomole also served as the Deputy Project Coordinator of the Inter-regional Training Project (IRTP) which was the Management Development Center, (MDC), originally a United Nations Development Program, (UNDP), project No. DCTC-33-002 for South Sudan.

Lomole was a part-time lecturer in the University of Juba invited to teach about legal, constitutional and other rights of women according to Sudanese law, and constitution. He taught law at the Multi-purpose Training Center (IRTP) and (MDC) for 5 years. He was also a lecturer of law at the Medical Assistants Training School (MATS) in Juba, South Sudan. At both Shukai Bible Training Institute in Omdurman, Sudan, and at the Nile Theological College, Khartoum, Sudan, he taught Church administration and management.

In Sudan, and in the public arena, his primary responsibility was defending human rights, religious freedom, and Church property. He was highly visible and an outspoken critic of the actions of the government of Sudan (GOS). He fought against government sponsored persecution of the Church. He negotiated a settlement and managed to resolve the schism within the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS).

His legal and advocacy activities, and the many critical statements he made in public about government-led human rights violations, have focused the spotlight on state-sponsored actions against the Church and the Sudanese people. These statements have garnered the attention of governments worldwide and the international human rights community.

Lomole’s legal work for the Episcopal Church of the Sudan served to inform the advocacy work of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) and the Anglican Communion worldwide. The Church in the United States, in conjunction with the Archbishop of Canterbury, has used legal analysis and documents prepared by Lomole to bring specific cases to the attention of world governments. In its efforts to profile religious persecution, slavery, and discrimination in Sudan, the Anglican Communion has effectively leveraged the visibility of Lomole’s work in the international arena.

Mr. Lomole studied, inter alia, Conflict Management, Peace and Justice, Canon Law, and Social ministries at the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, also known as Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. This qualified him to earn a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) degree. He was a resident of the Overseas Ministries Studies Center (OMSC) in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. While there, he studied International Missions and served as Fellow of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography (DACB) and is the author of many stories in the Dictionary.

Currently, Mr. Lomole is actively involved in advocacy work, and is a defender of human rights, democracy and democratic governance.