Meeting John V Taylor's daughter

Yesterday Joanna and Charles Woodd came to lunch. This was very exciting, because, Joanna is the daughter of Bishop John V Taylor, who was Principal of Bishop Tucker College from 1943 to 1954. Joanna was 1 year old when her family moved to Mukono, and 13 when they left. She herself went to work in Kumi as a nurse later on, and has made a few trips back to Uganda since then, although her most recent visit to Mukono was about ten years ago. From her description it seems the family lived in what is now the Owors' house. She agreed with us that Mukono was an idyllic place to be as a young child, and she had very fond memories of racing about the grassy campus, in and out of other people's houses, and of the freedom and safety for children there. She told us that she went to school in Kampala, although she couldn't remember the name of the school, but they used to stay with an English family in town during the week, and only travel home for the weekends. Hmm, we did think about that from time to time... Mind you, she said Kampala was beautiful, uncrowded and leafy back then...

Joanna brought to show me a fascinating book made in 1950, about a Passion Play which her father put on with the Bishop Tucker students. It contains beautiful black and white photos of tableaux from the play. The students were in Biblical style costumes, and interspersed the drama with negro spirituals which, according to John Taylor's book, they sang beautifully. Just the expressions on their faces convey the solemnity, reverence and beauty of the play The play was acted out in the chancel of the old chapel, and was performed for the local community, which is described as the college, the three schools and the parish church all on the hill. Sadly no names are in the book, and carefully as I looked at the photos I did not recognise any faces - but I suppose these students from 1950 would have been at least 80 when we arrived in Mukono, so I shouldn't quite expect to!


I read two of John Taylor's books while I was in Uganda: The Go-Between God, which I loved, and The Primal Vision which I thought was fascinating. Apparently he wrote The Primal Vision not when he was principal of Bishop Tucker but when he made a return visit to Uganda some years later in 1963, specifically for research, when he was head of CMS in the UK.


Its full name being, "The Primal Vision: Christian presence amid African religion," it was one of the earliest attempts to describe African philosophy and religion, and to see how Christianity can be understood in Africa, and in fact how we can understand it better with the help of the African worldview. It was criticised at the time for being a bit too sympathetic to and positive about African religion, and leaning towards syncretism.

John V Taylor went on from heading CMS, to being Bishop of Winchester. He is described as being a "liberal evangelical rather than a conservative one" and was clearly greatly loved and respected wherever he worked.

We had a wonderful time chatting away with Joanna and Charles. They still do a lot to support Uganda, Charles being treasurer of an English organisation called the "Uganda Church Association", which sends out a yearly newsletter about goings-on in the Church of Uganda to a list of 230 interested people in England - many of them former Bishop Tucker missionaries, and many Ugandans who now live here. In the latest edition, for example, is an article written by Monica Ntege! Needless to say, we are delighted to have made this great connection, and hope to have more contact with UCA.

Joanna and Charles Woodd

We also discovered recently that John Taylor's grandson, Jonathan, (Joanna's nephew), is a lay assistant at our church in Exeter, St Leonards! He approached us at the mission weekend we spoke at in March. What a small small world...