The Rt. Rev. Howard Gregory, Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, has asserted that, contrary to the view held by some people in the modern, scientific era, God and his angels are real, and are an integral part of human existence.
This was the central theme of the Sermon which the Bishop delivered at the installation of the Rev. Garth Minott as a Canon of the Cathedral of St. Jago de la Vega, Spanish Town, on September 29, observed by the Church as the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.
Bishop Gregory stated that advances in science and technology which enabled human beings to use the visible and tangible to create, invent and build modern societies, had resulted in a shift into arrogance and idolatry in asserting there is no God.
The feast day which we celebrate today asserts with boldness the existence of God, the reality of the mysterious in life, and existence of a world of heavenly beings who are God’s agents, interfacing with human life in its concreteness and every day expression and the world of the mysterious and the heavenly.”
Bishop Gregory referred to the role of angels and archangels such as Gabriel, who announced the birth of Jesus, and Michael who in the Revelation of St. John, Chapter 12 will fight and defeat Satan at the end of the age, noting that they are at the heart of Christianity. “The existence of angels is not something which has been concocted through the ages by ignorant and backward persons within the history of the church to mislead the so-called naïve and superstitious people of God. It is present in Scripture and is articulated on the very lips of Jesus,” he said.
(Please click here for the full text of the Sermon)
The Rev. Canon Minott, who is Anglican Warden at the United Theological College of the West Indies, (UTCWI) will occupy the Stall of St. Patrick, replacing the Venerable Justin Nembhard, who was appointed an Archdeacon in 2012. Bishop Gregory expressed the hope that like St. Patrick whose life was transformed after his encounter with angels, and who led many persons to Christianity, the Rev. Canon Minott would guide many in formation at the UTCWI and help them to discover their vocation as ministers within the church of God.
The Rev. Canon Minott joins three Bishops, three Archdeacons and seven other Canons who make up the Cathedral Chapter.
