William Taylor (Dean of Portsmouth)

William Henry Taylor was the last provost (and first dean) of Portsmouth Cathedral.

He was born on 23 December 1956[1] and educated at the University of Kent, Tübingen, Lancaster and London, from where he was awarded a PhD (SOAS) in Ottoman Syriac Studies. He was ordained in 1984[2] and began his career as Assistant Curate at All Saints, Canterbury. After this he was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advisor on Orthodox Affairs at Lambeth Palace and then senior curate at All Saints, Margaret Street, Westminster. He was CMS chaplain in Jordan from 1988 to 1991 and then Vicar of St Peter's Church, Ealing,[3] and Area Dean of Ealing, 1993-98.

From 2000 to 2002 he was provost (subsequently dean) of Portsmouth Cathedral.

Since 2002 he has been Vicar of St John's Notting Hill and Chairman of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association. He edited, together with the Roman Catholic priest Michael Prior (1942-2004) "Christians in the Holy Land" (1994), and is the author of "Antioch and Canterbury" (Gorgias Press, 2005). He is a director of Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association (JMECA) and a Freeman of the City of London.