First Published on ACNS: October 11, 2023, 
The Most Revd Dr Howard Gregory, primate of West Indies, Speaks during the 2022 Lambeth Conference in the United KingdomPhoto Credit: Richard Washbrooke for The Lambeth Conference
The Most Revd Howard Gregory, Archbishop of the West Indies and Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, will be conferred with the Order of Jamaica (OJ) – his country’s fifth highest national honour – on Monday 16 October.
The award, in recognition of the Archbishop’s service to religion spanning some 50 years, will be presented by Jamaica’s Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen, at King’s House, the Governor General’s official residence. Archbishop Howard will be one of several recipients being honoured at the annual Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards.
Archbishop Howard, whose pastoral journey began in 1973 when he was ordained a deacon, is the first Jamaican-born bishop 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.
As archbishop, he has oversight for the eight dioceses in the English-speaking Caribbean: 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, the oldest Anglican theological college in the Western Hemisphere.
Prior to his election as diocesan bishop, he was the suffragan bishop of Montego Bay for 10 years. His elevation to episcopal office followed a 22-year tenure as a member of the Faculty of the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) where he played a seminal role in the preparation of students for the ordained ministry. He was President of this institution for 12 years.
A respected voice in the ecumenical community, Archbishop Howard is a past president and former executive member of the Jamaica Council of Churches.
Further afield, he has served on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) and is co-chair of the International Reformed-Anglican Dialogue (IRAD). More recently, he was appointed chair of the Commission for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion (CTEAC).