Bishop who christened Princess Lilibet for Harry and Meghan is ex-newspaper editor and Richard Nixon’s chief of staff who he dubbed ‘our House liberal’
- Right Reverend John Harvey Taylor was one of Richard Nixon’s close confidantes
- Taylor was previously editor of twice-weekly Chula Vista Star News in the 1970s
The Bishop who christened Meghan and Harry’s daughter Princess Lilibet is a former newspaper editor and the chief of staff for disgraced former US president Richard Nixon.
The Right Reverend John Harvey Taylor – the Bishop of Los Angeles – baptized the Sussex’s 21-month-old at their Montecito home in California on Friday.
The christening of Lilibet saw her royal title of ‘Princess’ used formally for the first time, giving the first indication that the Sussexes will use the titles for their children.
The small ceremony – conducted by the man described as one of Nixon’s closest confidantes, and who Nixon himself described as ‘our House liberal’ – was attended by between 20 and 30 friends at their Montecito mansion.
King Charles, Queen Consort Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales were invited to the California ceremony last Friday but they declined, People magazine reported.
Right Reverend John Harvey Taylor, the Bishop of Los Angeles, christened the Sussex’s daughter Lilibet on Friday
Right Reverend John Harvey Taylor (centre) is a former newspaper editor and the chief of staff for disgraced former US president Richard Nixon (left)
Prior to becoming Bishop of Los Angeles, Taylor was a reporter and then editor of twice-weekly Chula Vista Star News in the 1970s.
Nixon, who died in 1994, was the 37th president of the US and the only one to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal.
Harry and Meghan christen Princess Lilibet but King Charles and William did not go, READ MORE HERE
A profile in the Los Angeles Times described Bishop Taylor as one of Nixon’s closest confidants in later years and as co-executor of his estate.
Nixon – a republican – used to call Bishop Taylor ‘our House liberal’.
Nixon resigned in 1974 after he was implicated in the Watergate scandal following a cover-up when five men connected with his election campaign team were arrested after a break-in at at the offices of the Democratic Party’s national headquarters.
Taylor was the former president’s researcher and editorial assistant, before becoming his post-chief of staff in 1984, ten years after Nixon left the White House.
Taylor left the role in 1990, and was succeeded by his future wife Kathy O’Connor, who he married in 2002.
He was later ordained as a priest in 2004, and was subsequently named vicar of St. John’s Episcopal Church and School in Rancho Santa Margarita.
Bishop Taylor was elected as the seventh bishop of Los Angeles to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in December 2016 and took office in December 2017.
He is a father of four and a grandfather of two.
The christening of Lilibet saw her royal title of ‘Princess’ used formally for the first time, giving the first indication that the Sussexes will use the titles for their children
The small ceremony for Lilibet (pictured) was attended by between 20 and 30 friends of the Sussexes at their Montecito mansion
The diocese’s website says he has ‘devoted himself to promoting reconciliation, transparency’.
It adds: ‘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.’
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