Porter Taylor

Porter Taylor never doubted God but doubted whether the church was the only vehicle for the holy. Growing up Episcopalian, he lived with an awareness of the tag "Frozen Chosen" for the church. Therefore, he searched to find God elsewhere. Once he returned to the church, he found himself ordained as a priest and then a bishop. The higher up he went in the hierarchy, the harder it was to represent the church yet stay centered in his faith. Because of his position, he was part of the installment of the first gay person ordained an Episcopal bishop and the first woman and African American ordained as the head of the Episcopal Church. Porter never lost his faith in Jesus or his love for the church. However, he realized that he had done what he could as a bishop, and his calling required more freedom than the office could provide. He was then persuaded that the spirit was calling him to be faithful by stepping outside the episcopacy and returning to his first love of teaching.

Porter Taylor never doubted God but doubted whether the church was the only vehicle for the holy. Growing up Episcopalian, he lived with an awareness of the tag "Frozen Chosen" for the church. Therefore, he searched to find God elsewhere. Once he returned to the church, he found himself ordained as a priest and then a bishop. The higher up he went in the hierarchy, the harder it was to represent the church yet stay centered in his faith. Because of his position, he was part of the installment of the first gay person ordained an Episcopal bishop and the first woman and African American ordained as the head of the Episcopal Church. Porter never lost his faith in Jesus or his love for the church. However, he realized that he had done what he could as a bishop, and his calling required more freedom than the office could provide. He was then persuaded that the spirit was calling him to be faithful by stepping outside the episcopacy and returning to his first love of teaching.

Porter Taylor, known for his wonderful preaching, always has something unusual and thoughtful to say. "Forgive us our weeds as we forgive the weediness of others," he writes in one sermon on the parable of the wheat and the weeds. In another he reflects on why the book of Ecclesiastes shouldn't be read by anyone who isn't at least 35. "At their best," Taylor writes, "sermons are about things that matter." To Dream as God Dreams is about those things that matter: finding our home in a storm, the roots and wings we need as people of faith, contagious love, and more. These sermons about the importance of community, the need for conversion, and the power of hopefulness make wonderful devotional reading, and are an inspirational source for others who preach. Porter Taylor has served a variety of parishes, and has a Ph. D. in literature and theology from Emory University. He is the bishop of the Diocese of Western North Carolina.

Anger, judgment, forgiveness, wisdom. All of these and more are biblical words we've used so often that they have very little meaning for us anymore. For others--seekers and those who are coming to church for the first time--these words sound like jargon. They are words that divide new church members from those who have been there a lifetime. In From Anger to Zion, Porter Taylor reflects on an alphabet of biblical words in ways that will help newcomers understand and speak the language, and that will encourage those familiar with these words to rethink them. A wonderful storyteller and writer, Taylor's essays, each based on a biblical text, take ancient words and ideas and bring them into contemporary life. Egypt of old is today's broken place in our lives the place where, like Moses, God is most likely to call us to go. Forgiveness is explored as a way of unfreezing time; without forgiveness we cannot grow. What does Isaiah's and the Israelites homesickness have to do with today's homeless and lost people? These beautifully written essays are wonderful devotional material, but they also can serve as material for preparing to preach or for small-group discussion within parish reading groups.