West Indies House of Bishops holding two-day meeting in SVG

The House of Bishops and the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church in the Province of the West Indies is meeting from today in St Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

The two-day meeting, which will be held at the Anglican Pastoral Centre, New Montrose, includes bishops and delegates from the eight dioceses of the Province of the West Indies.

Participants at the meeting, which ends tomorrow, come from the dioceses of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands; Jamaica and the Cayman Islands; the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba; Barbados; Trinidad and Tobago; Guyana; Belize and the Windward Islands.

The meetings will be chaired by the Archbishop of the Church in the Province of the West Indies, The Most Reverend Dr The Honourable John. W D Holder.

The Provincial Standing Committee meets twice yearly, once in Barbados and in another diocese while the House of Bishops meets twice a year, before the Provincial Standing Committee.

The House of Bishops discusses issues concerning the common life of the Church in the Province: Doctrine, Social Justice and Human Rights, Liturgy and Church Music, Mission, Renewal and Ecumenism, Ministry, Family Life and Youth. The Provincial Standing Committee then makes the decisions on these issues. Developments in dioceses are heard every six months and this method works for the Church in the Province of the West Indies, as it keeps the dioceses connected.