Year long observance planned for the Diocese of North East Caribbean and Aruba

The Bishop of the North East Caribbean and Aruba has announced plans for the celebration of the West Indian diocese’s 175th anniversary. In a letter sent to clergy this week, the Rt. Rev. Errol Brooks said the theme for the year-long observance would be “Celebrating our Heritage, Seizing the Moment, Embracing the Future” with events planned on each of the 12 islands where it has parishes.

Carved out of the dioceses of Barbados and Jamaica in 1842, the diocese was under the extraprovincial oversight of the Archbishop of Canterbury until the Church of the Province of the West Indies was formed in 1883. For the first 26 years of its existence it was supported by the British colonial government, until the the Church of England was disestablished in the West Indies in 1868.

Bishop Brooks said the celebrations would commence on 28 August 2016 at St Andrew’s Church in Antigua with a service broadcast over ABS Radio led by the Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev. the Hon. John Holder, Bishop of Barbados. Over the coming 12 months, each of the islands in the diocese would hold a local commemoration, culminating with a service at the diocese’s 50th meeting of Synod at the St John’s Cathedral in Antigua in August 2017.

The year would be marked by public lectures, prayer pilgrimages, a commemorative magazine, and other events, the bishop wrote. 

“What do we hope would be the outcome/legacy of these celebrations,” the bishop asked. “The five Marks of Mission, namely: To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God; To teach, baptize and nurture new believers; To respond to human need by loving service; To transform unjust structures in society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation; and To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth; become an integral part of our mission going forward.”