It is with great sadness we inform you that Canon Joe Taylor died yesterday morning, Sunday 1st September.
Please pray for the repose of his soul and for his family and friends at this time.
Details of the funeral arrangements will be available here in due course.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
Very Rev Canon Joe Taylor RIP
Joseph Michael Taylor was born on 28th August 1940. He came from the coal mining country of South Yorkshire that is now part of the Diocese of Hallam. As a young man he was accepted as a student for the Diocese of Leeds by Bishop Dwyer and trained for the priesthood at Ushaw College in County Durham. He was ordained at St Anne’s Cathedral, Leeds on 12th June 1965.
From 1965-70 Fr Taylor served as an Assistant Priest in the parish of St Francis, Bradford. He then moved to St Thomas More, Sheffield where he remained until 1975 when he was appointed to Holy Family, Leeds. He became a Parish Priest for the first time in 1980 when Bishop Wheeler appointed him to St Edmund’s, Airedale.
From 1986 to 1990 Fr Taylor was Parish Priest of St Mary’s, Selby and this was followed by his appointment to St Paul’s at Alwoodley, in North Leeds. As Parish Priest of St Paul’s, he oversaw the building of the new church which was opened by Bishop Konstant in 1996. In 2003 he moved to Calderdale to become the Parish Priest of St Bernard’s, Halifax and in 2012 he became the Parish Priest of Our Lady Immaculate at Pateley Bridge, from where he retired in 2016.
Fr Taylor was appointed to the Cathedral Chapter by Bishop Roche in 2006 and he became Provost of the Chapter in 2010. In the summer of 2012, he chaired the Chapter Canons when they elected Mgr John Wilson (the present Archbishop of Southwark) as Diocesan Administrator following Bishop Roche’s appointment to the Roman Curia.
On his retirement Canon Taylor went to live at Filey, in North Yorkshire. It was here that he died on Sunday 1st September 2024, a few days after his eighty-fourth birthday. He had suffered from ill-health at various times during his retirement and had been unwell of late. Bishop Marcus had travelled to Filey to see Canon Taylor shortly before his death.
For almost six decades of priestly ministry Canon Taylor gave faithful service to the Bishops and people of the Diocese of Leeds. He was unmistakably a Yorkshireman, with a Yorkshireman’s sense of humour, and it is fitting that in parishes across the county – North, South and West Yorkshire – there will be a great many who will remember him with affection and hold him in prayer.
May he rest in peace.
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