Drexel Wellington Gomez (born 24 January 1937) is a Bahamian Anglican

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

Life and ministry

Gomez was born on the

Berry Islands The Berry Islands are a chain of islands and a district of the Bahamas, covering about of the northwestern part of the Out Islands. The Berry Islands consist of about thirty islands and over one hundred small islands or cays, often referred t ...

in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

. He graduated from

St Chad's College , motto_English = Not what you have, but who you are , scarf = , established = 1904 , principal = Margaret Masson , senior_tutor = Eleanor Spencer-Regan , undergraduates = 409 , postgraduates = 150 , website = , coordinates = , location_map ...

, Durham University, in 1959. He was enthroned and consecrated as Lord

Bishop of Barbados The Diocese of Barbados is one of eight dioceses of the Anglican Communion that is part of the Province of the West Indies. History The diocese was established in 1824 as one of a pair, the other being the Diocese of Jamaica, which covered the ...

in the Cathedral Church of St. Michael on 25 June 1972 and then in 1997 was elected the Bishop of the

Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands The Anglican Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands was originally established in 1861 as the Diocese of Nassau. Retitled the Diocese of Nassau and The Bahamas in 1942, it is now known as the Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks an ...

. Gomez was elected Archbishop and Primate of the Province of the West Indies in 1996. His full title became His Grace the Most Reverend Drexel Wellington Gomez, Lord Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of the Church of the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

& Bishop of the Diocese Of Nassau & The

(Including the

Turks & Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and no ...

). Along with Archbishop

Peter Akinola Peter Jasper Akinola (born 27 January 1944, in Abeokuta) is the former Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria. He is also the former bishop of Abuja and Archbishop of Province III, which covered the northern and central parts of the coun ...

, Anglican Primate of

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, Gomez was a leading opponent of the ordination of non-celibate gay people as Anglican clergy, an issue that escalated into a crisis for the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

following the consecration of an openly non-celibate gay priest,

Gene Robinson Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he served as Canon to the ...

, as the Bishop of New Hampshire in the United States in 2003. In October 2003, Gomez was appointed to the Lambeth Commission on Communion by the Archbishop of Canterbury,

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...

. The commission produced the ''Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion'' (also known as The ''Windsor Report'' and the ''Eames Report''), published in October 2004. In August 2007, Gomez was the main preacher at a service at which several Anglican archbishops consecrated two American priests as bishops despite the opposition of the

Episcopal Church in the United States of America The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop o ...

. Gomez accused the American church of "aggressive revisionist theology" and teaching lies. Gomez retired as bishop and archbishop in 2009.

Works

Liturgical works

* D. W. Gomez (contributor), ''A companion to the 1975 experimental rite for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist: prepared for experimental use in the Province of the West Indies / the Provincial Liturgical Commission, the Church in the Province of the West Indies.'' (1976) * D. W. Gomez (ed.), ''True Union in the Body? A contribution to the discussion within the Anglican Communion concerning the public blessing of same-sex unions'' (Oxford, 2002), p. 3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Drexel 1939 births Living people 20th-century Anglican archbishops 21st-century Anglican archbishops Alumni of St Chad's College, Durham Bahamian Anglicans Anglican bishops of Nassau Anglican archbishops of the West Indies Anglican bishops of Barbados People from the Berry Islands Anglican realignment people