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John Taylor
Bishop of Winchester
Diocese	Diocese of Winchester
In office	1975–1985
Predecessor	Falkner Allison
Successor	Colin James
Other post(s)	General Secretary, CMS (1963–1974)
Personal details
Born	(1914-09-11)11 September 1914 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Died	30 January 2001(2001-01-30) (aged 86) Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Denomination	Anglican
Parents	John Taylor & Margaret Irene née Garrett
Spouse	Peggy née Wright (m. 1940)
Children	three
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Ordination history
History Diaconal ordination Ordained by Arthur Winnington-Ingram  Date 18 December 1938  Place St Paul's Cathedral  Priestly ordination Ordained by Guy Smith  Date 29 September 1939  Place St Paul's Cathedral  Episcopal consecration Consecrated by Donald Coggan  Date 31 January 1975  Place Westminster Abbey

John Vernon Taylor (11 September 1914 – 30 January 2001) was an English bishop and theologian who was the Bishop of Winchester from 1974 to 1985.

Education and family

Taylor was born in Cambridge – while his father (John) was Vice Principal at Ridley Hall – and educated at St Lawrence College (where his father was headteacher). He read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, then read theology and trained for the ministry at St Catherine's Society and Wycliffe Hall (where his father was principal) at Oxford, and the Institute of Education.

His father was later Bishop of Sodor and Man; his mother was Margaret Irene née Garrett. Taylor married Margaret (Peggy) Wright on 5 October 1940, and they had three children.

Priestly ministry

He was ordained in the Church of England: made a deacon by Arthur Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London, at St Paul's Cathedral on 18 December 1938, and ordained priest by Guy Smith, Bishop of Willesden, at St Paul's on Michaelmas (29 September) the following year. He spent five years engaged in Christian ministry in England, (from 1938 to 1940 as a curate at All Souls, Langham Place, and then from 1940 to 1943 as curate in St Helen's the Diocese of Liverpool). He then felt drawn to overseas missionary work; unable to do so immediately because of wartime travel restrictions, he obtained a teaching qualification at London University.

In 1945, with the ending of World War II, he moved to Mukono, Uganda, as a missionary working in theological education. He returned to England in 1954 and worked for the International Missionary Council. In 1959 he became Africa Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, and in 1963 he succeeded Max Warren as its General Secretary, remaining in post until 1974.

Episcopal ministry

His nomination to the See of Winchester was announced 14 August 1974, he was elected and confirmed that winter, consecrated a bishop by Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey on 31 January, and installed at Winchester Cathedral on 8 February 1975. He then served as Bishop of Winchester until his retirement on 28 February 1985, succeeding Falkner Allison, an old-fashioned Evangelical much-loved by all parties within the diocese. He was the first priest to be consecrated directly to the See of Winchester since William Day in 1595, and was respected throughout the diocese and beyond mainly by liberals and modernists, but failed to gain the trust of Anglo-Catholics. A product of Wycliffe Hall, with connections with All Souls, Langham Place, he was nevertheless a liberal evangelical rather than a conservative one. When first consecrated, he initially caused some amusement by refusing to wear a mitre and ordering that it be carried in front of him on a cushion in processions. After that one occasion he reverted to custom and wore it.

Bibliography

The most notable of his books were The Go-Between God (1972) and The Christlike God (1992), both of which remain in print. Enough is enough (1975) was an early book of the environmentalist movement, making the theological case for resisting consumerism and looking after our planet.

• The Primal Vision: Christian Presence amid African Religion (London: SCM 1963; New Edition, SCM Classics 2001)
• The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission (London: SCM 1972; New Edition, SCM Classics 2002).
• For All the World (1966)
• Enough is enough (London: SCM: 1975)
• The Growth of the Church in Buganda: An Attempt at Understanding (1980)
• Weep Not for Me: Meditations on the Cross and the Resurrection (1986)
• The Christlike God (London: SCM 1992).
• Bishops on the Bible: Eight Bishops on the Role and Relevance of the Bible Today (1994)
• A matter of life and death (London: SCM 1986)
• Kingdom Come (1989)
• A Christmas Sequence and Other Poems (1989)

Posthumous collections:

• The Easter God and his Easter People (2003)
• The Incarnate God (2006)

Biographical:

• Poet, Priest and Prophet by David Wood.

Notes

1. Who Was Who erroneously records that he was ordained deacon in 1956 and priest in 1957, whereas both Crockford's and the Church Times record 1938 and 1939, and these are consistent with his first curacy: 1938–1940.

References

1. "Taylor, John Vernon". Who's Who & Who Was Who. Vol. 1920–2007 (December 2007 online ed.). A & C Black. Retrieved 25 June 2018. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. "Taylor, John Vernon". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75441. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. "Advent ordinations". Church Times. No. 3961. 23 December 1938. p. 711. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via UK Press Online archives.
4. "Ordinations". Church Times. No. 4002. 6 October 1939. p. 300. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via UK Press Online archives.
5. "New bishops for Lincoln, Winchester". Church Times. No. 5818. 16 August 1974. p. 1. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via UK Press Online archives.
6. "picture caption". Church Times. No. 5843. 7 February 1975. p. 1. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via UK Press Online archives.
7. "picture caption". Church Times. No. 5844. 14 February 1975. p. 1. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via UK Press Online archives.
8. "Bishop of Winchester to retire". Church Times. No. 6330. 8 June 1984. p. 1. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 25 June 2018 – via UK Press Online archives.

External links

Obituaries:

• https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,3604,434565,00.html
• https://web.archive.org/web/20071011083605/http://archive.thisisdorset.net/2001/02/08/104848.html

Christian Mission with John V. Taylor:

• https://web.archive.org/web/20041118014037/http://www.geocities.com/ccom_ctbi/CCOM_documents/waterloo_seminar_dwood_mission_with_jvt.htm

v t e Bishops of Winchester
Early Medieval 634–1006	Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester Agilbert, Bishop of Dorchester Wine Leuthere Hædde Daniel Hunfrith Cyneheard Æthelheard Ecgbald Dudd Cyneberht Ealhmund Wigthegn Herefrith (disputed) Eadmund (disputed) Eadhun Helmstan Swithun Ealhferth Tunbeorht Denewulf Frithestan Beornstan/Byrnstan Ælfheah I Ælfsige I Beorhthelm Æthelwold I Ælfheah II	Arms of the Bishop of Winchester
High Medieval 1006–1304	Cenwulf Æthelwold II Ælfsige II Ælfwine Stigand Walkelin William Giffard Henry of Blois Richard of Ilchester Godfrey de Luci Richard Poore Peter des Roches Ralph Neville William de Raley Aymer de Valence Andrew of London William de Taunton John Gervais Nicholas of Ely Robert Burnell Richard de la More John of Pontoise
Late Medieval 1305–1501	Henry Woodlock John Sandale Rigaud of Assier John de Stratford Adam Orleton William Edington William of Wykeham Henry Beaufort William Waynflete Peter Courtenay Thomas Langton
Early Modern 1501–1820	Richard Foxe Thomas Wolsey Stephen Gardiner John Ponet Stephen Gardiner John White Robert Horne John Watson Thomas Cooper William Wickham William Day Thomas Bilson James Montague Lancelot Andrewes Richard Neile Walter Curle Episcopacy abolished (Commonwealth) Brian Duppa George Morley Peter Mews Jonathan Trelawny Charles Trimnell Richard Willis Benjamin Hoadly John Thomas Brownlow North
Late Modern 1820–current	George Pretyman Tomline Charles Sumner Samuel Wilberforce Harold Browne Anthony Thorold Randall Davidson Herbert Ryle Edward Talbot Theodore Woods Cyril Garbett Mervyn Haigh Alwyn Williams Falkner Allison John Taylor Colin James Michael Scott-Joynt Tim Dakin Philip Mounstephen

• English Anglican theologians
• Anglican writers
• Bishops of Winchester
• 20th-century Church of England bishops
• Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford
• Alumni of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
• People educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate
• 1914 births
• 2001 deaths
• English male non-fiction writers
• 20th-century English male writers