Anthony Basil Taylor

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ANTHONY BASIL TAYLOR

Born : 24 April 1954
Deceased :

Bishop of Little Rock, 2008-present

Official blazon

Arms impaled . Dexter: Azure, inverted Latin Crosses Argent, upon a saltair of the second a six-pointed star of the first. Sinister: Argent, a cruciform tridentine anchor vert diagonal leaning downward suspended over waves gules

Origin/meaning

As common in US episcopal heraldry, the arms show the arms of the diocese impaled with the personal arms of the bishop.

The red waves represent the water of baptism and the blood of the Eucharist as prefigured in the events of the Exodus: the waters of the Nile turned into blood, the blood of the Passover Lamb sprinkled on the Israelites' doorposts, prefiguring that of Jesus pou red out on the cross, and their passage through the Red Sea, prefiguring our salvation from the power of sin and death through baptism.

They also represent the pastoral challenge of the Church today: the blood of martyrs like Father Stanl y Rother of Oklahoma and the Rio Grande across which immigrants continue to come. The red waves also refer to the Red River which unites Texas, the state of Bishop Taylor's birth, with Oklahoma and Arkansas, the states in which he has served as a priest and bishop.

The green cruciform tridentine anchor represents Christian hope anchored by faith in the Blessed Trinity. The color green and the anchor are traditional symbols of hope. The cruciform anchor leans downward to represent a preferential option for the poor: Jesus coming down from heaven to save us and we who follow him leaning downward to lift up those who are oppressed.

Bishop Taylor's episcopal motto is "The Humble Shall Inherit the Earth." It is taken from Psalm 37:11 and is quoted by Jesus in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5: 5.

The achievement is completed with the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop.

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