Planning Begins for 39th CPWI Synod

Clergy and lay representatives at the last Provincial Synod held in Montego Bay in 2012.
Clergy and lay representatives at the last Provincial Synod held in Montego Bay in 2012.

The first meeting of the Design Group charged with developing plans for the 39th Triennial Synod of the Church in the Province of the West Indies (CPWI) will take place in Kingston this week under the Chairmanship of the Rt. Rev. Robert Thompson, Suffragan Bishop of Kingston.

The two-day meeting (January 8-9) at Church House is being attended by the Most Rev. Drexel Gomes, retired Archbishop of the West Indies; the Rt. Rev. Claude Berkley, Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago; the Rev. Canon Wayne Isaacs of the Diocese of Barbados; and Miss Cecile Reyes, Lay Representative  from Belize. University of the West Indies Professors, Neville Duncan, Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies; and Patrick Bryan, Professor of History, will serve as resource persons to the Design Group.

The Design Group which was appointed by the CPWI House of Bishops at its last meeting in November 2014, has been mandated to develop approaches that reflect the Five Marks of Mission which are currently being used to guide strategic visioning in the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, and which also form the basis for programme implementation across the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The 39th Triennial Provincial Synod, which will bring together clergy and lay representatives from eight Dioceses around the Caribbean Sea, will be held in Barbados in November. The last Synod was hosted in Montego Bay in 2012.