Obituary of Rev. James Kenneth Taylor`

James K. Taylor, 78, of Cicero, New York, a much-beloved Episcopal priest, died Thursday, February 6th, after a long illness. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on October 31, 1935, to parents who encouraged his interest in the arts. He graduated from Indiana State University, Terre Haute, with a B.S. (1957) and M.S. (1958) in Speech and Communication and he took pride in the fact that, for eight years, he was a radio broadcaster for classical music at station WBOW in his home town. Early on he developed an expertise in the technical aspects of electronics which turned eventually into a lifelong interest. In 1961 he graduated STB from Berkeley Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut, and was ordained deacon and priest in the Diocese of Indianapolis. Later, Berkeley awarded him an M.Div. in Liturgics. Fr. Jim served Episcopal congregations in Seymour and Rushville, Indiana, and was briefly rector of St. Matthew's Church, Indianapolis. He then became associate rector of Trinity Church in Bloomington, Indiana, serving as Episcopal Chaplain at Indiana University. As a scholar of church history and scriptural hermeneutics he served on the examining committee of the diocese for the vetting of postulants for ordination. Also at Indiana University, Fr. Jim founded a chapter of Integrity (the Episcopal LGBTQ organization), which proved immensely popular and helpful to the entire university community as a means of addressing the then-emerging issue of sexual orientation as a prominent social and religious concern. Moreover, he created Congregations for Peace, a student organization with connections to the broader world of international peace movements. An early supporter of women's ordination in the Episcopal Church, Fr. Jim organized the liturgy for the first officially-sanctioned ordination of a woman, that of the Rev. Jacqueline Means, in January, 1977. In January 1988, Fr. Jim moved to Syracuse University as Episcopal Chaplain, and in December of that year, he provided pastoral care to the friends and parents of the numerous Syracuse students who lost their lives in the Pan Am disaster over Lockerbie, Scotland. Concurrent with his university duties, Fr. Jim served as rector of Grace Church, Syracuse, ministering self-sacrificially to an inner-city parish. In 2005, five years after his retirement from these duties, he became priest-in-charge of St. David's, Barnaveld, where he was much revered as a pastor and a scholar. Not least of all, and of particular importance to Fr. Jim, he was a longtime member of the Order of the Holy Cross, a Benedictine order, and counted himself among the Oblates of Mount Calvary, a subsidiary. Fr. Jim's sister, Ann (Taylor) Boyd, predeceased him in 2013, and he is survived by his brother-in-law Roy. Fr. Jim's devoted friends will remember him as a person of gargantuan generosity and warmth, keen insight, and remarkable learning, together with a profound and infectious religious faith. A requiem Mass will be celebrated at the Church of the Saviour (437 James St., Syracuse) on Tuesday, March 11 at 10:00AM, with interment to follow in the church's columbarium. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the parish endowment fund.