Recognizing Bishop John Harvey Taylor’s decade-long “prophetic leadership” in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and beyond, Claremont School of Theology (CST) awarded him an honorary doctorate of divinity May 19 during commencement exercises at Westwood United Methodist Church near UCLA.
CST’s co-presidents, retired United Methodist Church Bishop Grant Hagiya and Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, conferred the honors, presenting a traditional academic hood and diploma to Taylor, who is an alumnus of the school and the formerly co-located Bloy House, the Episcopal Theological School at Los Angeles.
“We thank you, Bishop Taylor, for your many commitments and the kind of prophetic leadership you have provided for all of us to make this place we call home a better place,” said Hagiya, noting that he and Taylor both served as bishops in Southern California and as members of the Los Angeles Council of Religious Leaders.
Kuan, expressing his appreciation to Taylor, quoted from the bishop’s biographical information: “In those called to leadership in the church, whether lay or ordained, he encourages the exercise of empathy and curiosity as tools of evangelism, to enrich relationships and build new ones across the barriers of difference and prejudice according to race, language, geography, orientation, identification, age, and socioeconomics.”
“My deepest thanks to Presidents Hagiya and Kuan and the faculty and board of trustees for this unexpected honor,” Taylor said, “and my congratulations to all our graduates.
“From the personal perspective, the Claremont School of Theology’s innovative collaboration with the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont enabled a working father and fiancé to complete his M.Div. I’ve never stopped applying lessons I learned from CST professors about liturgy, parish administration, urban ministry, and ministry to the first- and second-generation immigrants who make America great.
“From the ecumenical perspective, next summer in Phoenix, at our General Convention, The Episcopal Church is expected to join the United Methodist Church in full communion – a unity devoted to the dignity of every human being without regard to race or nation, orientation or identification. May the spirit of full communion inspire new collaborations between us in theological education.
“And from the multi-faith perspective – this bears particular mention after the gun violence yesterday at the Islamic Center of San Diego — CST continues to innovate with its trailblazing program with the Bayan Islamic Graduate School. The golden rule is the plumb line of all faith and applies to all in power. It is the law of the universe. May the divine unity that CST exemplifies continue to give its students a modern vocabulary for telling God’s ancient story of love.”
Taylor’s remarks were followed by the awarding of a second honorary doctorate, posthumously, to the Rev. Daee Hee Park, received by his widow, Sung Sook Park, 97. The degree recognized his seven-decade service as a leading United Methodist pastor both in Korea and the United States.
Presentation of the honorary doctorates was followed by the conferring of academic awards, diplomas, and hoods to current graduates – recipients of 17 doctor of ministry degrees, seven Ph.D.’s, 12 master of divinity degrees, two master of arts, and one master of theological studies.
The commencement exercises continued CST’s 141-year history dating from its founding in 1885 as the Maclay College of Theology in San Fernando. Later located for many years in Claremont, Calif., CST – one of 13 United Methodist seminaries– relocated to the Westwood United Methodist Church campus in 2023.
In recent news, CST announced a renewed academic partnership with Bayan, a California non-profit religious corporation that operates an educational program known as “Bayan Islamic Graduate School.” This collaboration supports the development and delivery of programs in Islamic Studies under CST’s academic authority and accreditation and marks a significant and hopeful step forward in interreligious theological education, according to a CST news release.
Closing the commencement exercises in prayer, Taylor said, “Holy one, we give you thanks for the peace and beauty of this day, for our graduates’ hard work and their devotion to you, for family members and friends who lifted them up in their studies and work, and for our faculty, staff, trustees, and benefactors. We give thanks for this day even as our hearts ache for victims of violence in San Diego and those at risk from wildfires. Theological education is not a retreat from the world, but a source of empowerment, that we might cheerfully know what you would have us do in your name – especially when the lie that we can’t help is at its most beguiling. Thank you for the year that is past at CST and for all the years that are ahead. In God’s name, in the name of the Risen Christ, we pray. Amen.”