The Most Rev. Dr. The Hon. Howard Gregory, OJ, Archbishop of the West Indies and Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, will retire from full-time service, effective December 31, 2024, having served as an ordained minister for 51 years.
The Archbishop announced his impending retirement today (November 13) 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 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.
Archbishop 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 (CPWI) at the same time. He was enthroned as the 14th Diocesan Bishop in 2012 and he was elected as the 13th Archbishop in 2019.
A respected voice in the ecumenical community, Archbishop 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..
These include Jamaica & The Cayman Islands, Barbados, The Bahamas & The Turks and Caicos
Islands, Belize, Guyana, North Eastern Caribbean & Aruba, Trinidad and Tobago, The
Windward Islands. He is also Chairman of Codrington College in Barbados which is the oldest
Anglican Theological College in the Western Hemisphere.
Further afield, he has 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).
In October 2023, Archbishop Gregory was conferred with the Order of Jamaica in recognition of
his service to religion.