After Secondary school he went on to study to be a teacher of Secondary education at the EXED Community College Kingston Jamaica. After two years of study at EXED Fr Howard left to join his family who were returning to London.
In 1980 he returned to London and worked for BT, firstly as a Clerical Assistant and then as a Clerical officer.
In 1983 Fr Howard discovered that,having attended Catholic Primary and Secondary school and thinking very seriously about the priesthood in Jamaica, that he was in fact baptised Anglican. He went to Rome with the Youth Pilgrimage in 1983 to thank the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II for his visit to the UK in 1982.His Parish Priest, Fr Bill Dempsey at the Church of the Transfiguration, Kensal Rise, arranged for him to be received as an adult convert, at the English College in Rome, by Cardinal Hume. Cardinal Hume was not well and so the Pilgrimage was led by Bishop James McGinness of Nottingham Diocese. Fr Howard was received into the Church at St Peter's Rome at the final Mass of the Pilgrimage. He was Confirmed at Osterely College, a pre-seminary college, by Cardinal Hume in 1984. His sister Diane, herself baptised an Anglican, was received and Confirmed by Cardinal Hume at the same time.
In 1985 after being accepted to study for the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Westmister, Fr Howard went to Allen Hall Seminary, Chelsea, London, where he studied for five years.During that time he took a degree in Sociology and Theology at Digby Stuart College, Roehampton Institute, a part of the University of Surrey. He then went to the Catholic University of Leuven where he took an STB and MA in Religious Studies.
In 1991 he was ordained a Deacon by Bishop Donald Reece, his Mentor from his days of living in Jamaica. Bishop Reece at the time was the Bishop of St John's Basseterre, living in Antigua, in the Caribbean.
Fr Howard was first assigned as a deacon and after ordination to the priesthood on November 16th 1992 by Cardinal Hume, in Westminster Cathedral, to Our Lady and St Josephs, in Balls Pond Road. He became the first man, born in the UK of Caribbean origins, to be ordained a Catholic priest in the UK.
In 1995 Fr Howard represented the Archdiocese of Westminster at the Catholic Missionary Society.He completed his assignment there in 1998.
He was loaned to the Diocese of Montego Bay in Jamaica in 1998 - 2000 where he was the parish priest at Our Lady of Fatima, Ocho Rios.
In 2000 he became the parish priest at Our Lady of Willesden until 2003 when he was asked to become the Administrator of the Holy Family Cathedral in Antigua. Fr Howard said that this was a "Dream come true" as he had always wanted to work with his Mentor, Bishop Reece. He was seconded there until 2006 when he returned to the Archdiocese.
In February 2007 he was asked to 'cover' Our Lady of the Holy Souls in Kensal New Town. In September 2007 he again 'covered' St Thomas More Eastcote where Fr Michael Connor had died suddenly.He completed his time there when the new parish priest was assigned.
In February 2008 Fr Howard became the Parish priest of St John the Evangelist Islington. He brings with him a wealth of experiences of different parishes and perspectives.
