My friend Kevin Taylor (known to his family as Gordon), who has died aged 77, was a Franciscan friar and Episcopal parish priest known for his infectious laugh and sense of humour.
Kevin was born in Dublin, the eldest of three brothers, to Benjamin, a joiner, and Florence (nee Bibby). He attended Christ Church Cathedral school in the city and went to church three times on a Sunday. The family moved to Manchester when Kevin was about 16.
After studying theology at Trinity College Dublin, he joined the Anglican order of the Society of St Francis (SSF), whose friars take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. That was when he began to use his middle name, as there was already a Brother Gordon in the order. He was guest master, looking after visitors, at the friary in Alnmouth, Northumberland, in the 1960s, which is when my father, a priest in Newcastle, got to know him. Sociable and fun, he became a frequent visitor to our vicarage.
In 1973 Kevin left Alnmouth to serve as guardian, or head, of a friary near the Falls Road in Belfast, during the Troubles. He had been given an old banger to drive and had to check underneath it for bombs before every journey. Sometimes the friars felt safer not wearing their brown habits when they were out so as not to be easily identified.
After Kevin’s ordination, the first wedding he conducted was that of his brother Ben to his wife, Margaret, in Manchester in 1973.
In 1980 Kevin was offered a sabbatical and chose to help a clergyman friend at his parish in Huntington Beach, California. He liked it so much he resigned from the SSF and became an Episcopal priest in the US, serving in parishes in Los Angeles County. He retired to Whittier, LA, in 2004.
Kevin enjoyed travelling and came back to the UK regularly to visit relatives and friends as well as delighting in playing host himself. He took a long walk every morning – even in the searing LA heat – and took pride in showing visitors the patch of California he had grown to love.
He is survived by his brothers, Ben and Alf, and three nephews.
