In this Year for Priests, we feature a West Australian Catholic pastor every week. This week: Fr Brenton Taylor – Bluff Point.
As a self-described “happy little heretic” living the life of a highly-paid advertising agent in Perth, Father Brenton Taylor fought God’s call to the priesthood with every fibre of his body.
To Fr Brenton, now 61 and parish priest at St Lawrence’s Church, Bluff Point, a northern coastal suburb of Geraldton, the very word ‘priest’ was anathema in his former life.
He was “thoroughly enjoying” writing and producing television ads for a multinational advertising agency until “the priesthood thing started to nag” at him in his mid-20s.
“I fought it with every fibre of my body,” he said. Priests in his experience were holy people, embraced by the people and by God – and that didn’t seem to describe him.
Two generations back in his family there were an Anglican and a Presbyterian minister in England and Australia respectively. He had been baptised Presbyterian and his mother was Anglican.
Gradually, however, he grew disenchanted with the hollow nature of the advertising industry, and thought maybe he could find a role in the Church – just not as a priest.
He went to work for three years on a wheat and sheep farm in York with a mate – “a great place to hide from God – except you can’t hide when you’re dealing with nature” on the farm, he said.
After planting and harvesting three crops, during which time he was given “gentle guidance and good counsel” by Norbertine Fr Stephen Cooney, a farmer himself who assisted him entering the seminary.
Even then he did so with no intention of being ordained a priest. He thought he’d just try it out and leave after a year, happily able to tell God, “well, I gave it a shot. Oh well. Thanks, but no thanks”.
After studying at St Charles Seminary in Guildford and St Francis Xavier Seminary in Adelaide, he bailed out and left to study with the Columbans in Sydney,. The idea of being a travelling missionary overseas appealing to him.
He lasted six months there before realising that the Columban life wasn’t for him. He left thinking he’d given the priesthood a decent shot.
But he wanted to remain involved in the Church and was accepted at Claremont Teachers’ Training College.
However, the priesthood still “nagged” at him. He eventually completed his priesthood studies and then-Bishop Barry Hickey of Geraldton ordained him for the diocese in 1990. He’s lived “happily ever after”.
He doesn’t regret his decision for a second and loves living in the country, being involved in people’s lives in such a unique way, even after his hedonistic past, which ironically helps him prepare sermons – though they last a bit longer than the 30-second ads he used to write.
“To me, the pulpit is about making the Gospel relevant to people,” he says. “There’s no point waffling. Jesus made Scripture relevant to those listening to Him, so we priests should do the same.”