Archbishop Howard Gregory to retire

The Most Reverend Dr Howard Gregory, archbishop of the West Indies and Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, has announced that he will retire from full-time service at year-end.

Gregory, who has served as an ordained minister for 51 years, will step aside on December 31.

He announced his impending retirement yesterday in a letter to clergy and church workers.

The formal letter of retirement has already been submitted to the Rt Rev Leon Golding, Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay and senior bishop of the diocese. A copy was also sent to the Senior Bishop of the Province of the West Indies, The Rt Rev Philip Wright, Bishop of Belize.

Gregory, whose pastoral journey began in 1973 when he was ordained a deacon, is the first native-born Jamaican to serve both as Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and Archbishop of the Church in the Province of the West Indies at the same time. He was enthroned as the 14th diocesan bishop in 2012 and elected as the 13th archbishop in 2019.

A respected voice in the ecumenical community, Gregory is a past president and executive member of the Jamaica Council of Churches.

As archbishop, he has had oversight for the eight dioceses in the English-speaking Caribbean, including Jamaica & The Cayman Islands, Barbados, The Bahamas & The Turks and Caicos Islands, Belize, Guyana, North Eastern Caribbean & Aruba, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Windward Islands.

He is also chairman of Codrington College in Barbados, which is the oldest Anglican Theological College in the Western Hemisphere.

Gregory 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.

In October last year, Gregory was conferred with membership in the Order of Jamaica in recognition of his service to religion.