West Indian archbishop announces he will step down at year’s end

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The Archbishop of the West Indies and Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the Most Rev Howard Gregory, has written to his clergy today announcing he will step down from office at year’s end.

Dr. Gregory (74) submitted his resignation to the Rt. Rev. Leon Golding, Bishop of Montego Bay, and to the Rt. Rev. Philip Wright, Bishop of Belize, the senior bishops of Jamaica and the West Indies announcing his retirement after 51 years of ordained ministry.

The first native-born Jamaican to serve as bishop of Jamaica and archbishop of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, Dr. Gregory was elected the 14th bishop of Jamaica in 2012 and the 13th Archbishop of the West Indies in 2019. Educated at the University of the West Indies. He was ordained a deacon in 1973, priest in 1974 for the diocese of Jamaica. He served as chaplain at the University of the West Indies, lecturer at the Church Teachers’ College in Mandeville, then warden at the United Theological College of the West Indies before being elected suffragan bishop of Montego Bay in 2002. 

The past president of the Jamaican council of churches, Dr. Gregory is also chairman of Codrington College in Barbados, the oldest Anglican seminary in the Western Hemisphere. He has also served on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order; and is Co-Chair of the International Reformed/Anglican Dialogue; and Chair of the Commission for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion (CTEAC).