Service of Witness to the Resurrection (E.B. Taylor)

Elizabeth Bruce Taylor of Greensboro, NC, age 67, passed away at home on July 5, 2026. Known as E.B. since childhood, she lived a life blessed with a wide circle of family and friends.

Born in Kingsport, TN, to Robert and Janie Bruce, E.B. was the fifth of six children. She attended college at Rhodes College where she met her future husband, David Taylor; they married the summer after graduation. E.B. and David lived in New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, Florida, and Raleigh, NC, before settling in Greensboro, NC.

E.B. was an avid reader, an informed source for a good book title or author recommendation, with interests spanning fiction, history, religion, public policy, and children’s literature. She and David traveled widely exploring art and architecture across different societies and time periods. The outdoors and nature were a constant presence in her life; she was a regular walker and hiker and enjoyed multiple visits to Acadia National Park and other parks.

The greatest joys in her life were her family: her children and grandchildren, sisters and brothers, and numerous nieces, nephews, and their spouses and children. She treasured her time with them all and particularly enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving gatherings that for many years brought much of the extended family together. Family gatherings at the beach and White Lake generated many happy memories.

Much of her adult life prioritized raising her two children. She volunteered at numerous organizations that provided opportunities and assistance to people in need. For the last 31 years, she and David were members at Guilford Park Presbyterian Church, where she was an elder and served on (and chaired) numerous committees of the church. E.B. was committed to the equality of all people and worked to counter injustice in all its forms.

E.B. is survived by her husband of 45 years, David, children Anne P. Taylor, MD, and D. Wyatt A. Taylor, III, daughter-in-law Laura A. Taylor, grandchildren Jackson, Graham, and Leigh, brother Robert Bruce (DeeDee), sisters Alice Nesbitt (Dawson), Susan Bankson (John), Anne Buzzelli (Ed), twelve nieces and nephews, sixteen great-nieces and -nephews, and numerous friends. She is predeceased by her parents and brother Joe.

A celebration of her life will be held at Guilford Park Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC at 2 pm on July 19, 2026, with a reception to follow. Gifts in her memory may be given to her church (Guilford Park Presbyterian Church, 2100 Fernwood Drive, Greensboro, NC 27408) or to support refugee and immigrant services in Greensboro (Faith Action International House, 2211 W. Meadowview Rd, #10, Greensboro, NC 27407).

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Transcript

Wendell Berry On Enough

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You may be seated. A poem by Wendell Berry entitled What We Need Is Here. Horseback on Sunday morning, harvest over. We taste persinnema and wild grape. Sharp sweet of summer's end. In Times maze over the fall fields, we name names that went west from here. Names that rest on graves. We opened a persinnamon seed to find a tree that stands in promise, pale, in the sweet smarrow. Gesefs appear high over us. And the sky closes. Abandoned as in love or sleep holds them to their way. Clear. In the ancient faith. What we need is here. And we pray not for a new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart. And in eye clear. What we need is here. This

Remembering Evie With Honesty

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is indeed a bittersweet moment for us all. For Evie is a celebration of her homecoming, and yet we will miss her more than anyone can rightly say. More than in her death, we confront our own mortality and long to once again hear ancient words of Holy Scripture, which Ebi faithfully lived and bravely died by. Ebi herself selected the scripture and hymns and poems that were significant for her in our gathering for remembrance this day. As we come before this scripture, let us pray. Source of all true wisdom, calm the troubled waters of our heart, and still all other voices by your own, that we may hear and believe and obey what you tell us in your word through the power of your spirit. Amen. Listen

Psalms Of Shelter And Courage

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for the word that comes from the Psalms, from Psalm 90. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth. Or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting, you are God. You turn us back to dust and say, Turn back, you mortals. For a thousand years are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. So teach us to remember our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And then from Psalm 121, if I look to the hills, from whence will come my help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. The Lord will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. And join with me if you will. In Psalm 23, it is printed in your book. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is the word of the Lord.

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Dear

A Poem Of Welcoming Creation

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Lord, I have swept and I have washed, but still nothing is as shining as it should be for you. Under the sink, for example, is an uproar of mice. It is the season of their many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves and through the walls, the squirrels have gnawed their ragged entrances. But it is the season when they need shelter. So what shall I do? And the raccoon limps into the kitchen and opens the cupboard while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow. What shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling in the yard, and the fox who is staring boldly up the path to the door. And still, I believe you will come, Lord. You will, when I speak to the fox, the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea goose, know that really I am speaking to you whenever I say, as I do all morning and afternoon, come in. Come in. Our

Do Not Worry And Love Unbroken

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New Testament readings are from the Gospel of Matthew and from Paul's letter to the church at Rome. Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church first from the Gospel of Matthew. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, What will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear? For it is the Gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness, God's justice, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today. And from the Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Rome, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all day long, and we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Here ends the reading of God's word, and to God be all glory, thanks, and praise. Help

Prepared To Die And To Live

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us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live. I've had this eloquent traditional prayer on my mind and heart throughout the months that Elizabeth Bruce Taylor, our beloved Evie, traverse the valley of the shadow of death. As I was struck by the clarity of her priorities for the final 16 months of her life, and by the thoughtful preparation she put into the details of how we would spend this very hour when the time came for us together to give thanks for her life among us. You should know that months in advance of this day, EB mapped precisely the order and contents of this service, what would, and equally important, what would not be included. EB lived her final days as one prepared to die. Carefully selecting every poem, every word of scripture, every hymn you are hearing this day, also approving every prayer and affirmation of faith in which you are invited to participate. Crafting for us a message of love and grace in the midst of our grieving. Words in which we can recognize a measure of her own hope and see her story in a larger context, in light of her conviction that in life and in death we belong to God. A God who knit her together in her mother's womb and gave her birth, whose promises were claimed on her behalf when her parents, Robert and Janie Bruce, presented her as an infant for baptism at Broad Street Methodist Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, as a child of the covenant. A God whom she came to know in her journey through life as a dwelling place in all generations. A God in whom we live and move and have our being. Indeed, there is no moment in which we have not been in God's hands.

God With Us In Suffering

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Which is not to say that God ordains every single thing that happens to us, that God wills for us terrifying diagnoses, experiences of injustice or devastating losses. Any such view of God as a divine dictator, as a puppet master of all that happens, pulling all the strings is badly in need of reframing in light of a distinctive witness of Christian scripture and tradition to a God who suffers. A God who does not stay distant from us, but who, through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, entered fully into the mess of our lives and our world. Indeed, a God who knows from the inside what it means to love, to grieve, to suffer, and one day to die. A God in solidarity with us, who redefines power not as power over, but power with. The psalmists in particular speak with breathtaking honesty about our finitude and mortality, about the brevity of our lives and the toil and trouble that often attend them, and of a God who is profoundly with us in all the vicissitudes of our lives, bent toward us in compassion and empowering resistance to all that disfigures human life and God's good creation.

Number Our Days Toward Wisdom

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I sent Evie an email to let her know I was holding her in the light daily with prayers for strength and endurance during the challenge she faced. However, her response was that what she was praying for was wisdom. A prayer reflected in the key petition of the first psalm she wanted us to hear today. Teach us, Lord, to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. And teach us, the Psalm is praise, to see our days as an allotted time, to accept them as a gift that is meaningful, purposeful, and enduring. And teach us that our lives and labors participate in something larger than ourselves in the eternal life of God. In fact, it was. Clear in my correspondence with her that a keynote of EB's preparation as she approached the threshold of this life was deep gratitude for the allotted time she had been given. Gratitude that I am also under orders to convey to you this day. For one thing, gratitude for her community of faith here at Guildford Park Presbyterian Church, with whom she wanted to share these words, and I'm quoting: I am incredibly grateful for the community of saints I have lived among at Guildford Park. So many wise, funny, and kind souls who have gone before me and are also here today. I have learned so much about faith, scripture, caring for others, good books, and how to live a meaningful life from this congregation. Gratitude also for her beloved extended family with whom she wanted to share these words. I was fortunate, she says, to grow up in a family where love and demonstrating love were the norm. I had an amazing mom and dad and five brothers and sisters to treasure. She goes on to say how lucky David and I were to have found each other, and how much love we have shared with our children, Wyatt and Anne, our daughter-in-law, Laura, and our three beloved grandchildren, Jackson, Graham, and Lee. My life has not been perfect or easy at times, she wrote, but there has been so much grace all around me. I am grateful. Where did she learn to articulate such gratitude? Even while grappling with an insidious disease, while navigating the valley of the shadow of death. Surely

Scripture As Lens And Mirror

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from her experience of these blessings she enumerates as gifts of God. And also, I believe from meditation upon them in light of scripture and creation. For the worship service she planned for us this day demonstrates that EB was a very close student of both. Both, in fact, are intertwined. For John Calvin, patron saint of Presbyterians, describes Scripture as the lens or the spectacles of faith, as eyeglasses that help us see the world with clear vision as God's creation. It's an image that captures the Bible's vision-framing power, as a book that brings our lives into focus and helps us see things we might otherwise overlook. Another one of my own patron saints, biblical scholar Phyllis Tribble, describes the Bible in related vision, visual fashion as a mirror, underscoring that it is not a should book from beginning to end. Its authority, she said, does not necessarily mean command or imperative. There's such a thing as the authority of a mirror. You look in a mirror in the morning and it shows you something you don't particularly like. So it gives you a choice to do something about it. The Bible trouble contends is a reflection of the whole panorama of life and therefore places upon us the responsibility to make choices. And she was right about that, but for reasons other than she supposes. The Bible is a mirror that tells us the truth about ourselves, reflecting the good, the bad, and the ugly. Epe knew that about Scripture. Well acquainted as she was with its cacophony, with its bewildering diversity of voices and perspectives from different times and places, with the sprawling, brawling conversation about life in God's presence that it represents. She knew where to look to find her true reflection. Indeed, I want to raise to visibility what I find to be a striking connecting thread between the hymns and the poetry and the scripture that EB loved and wanted us to hear this day. Their emphasis on vision, discernment, wisdom that emerges from careful study of and engagement with God's good creation. EB's faith reflected throughout these elections was clearly grounded in creation theology, which is why I think she included a text I've not often heard on occasions such as this, from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, from what Anne Lamont describes as his anti-anxiety discourse, Matthew chapter 6.

Reordering Priorities Beyond Anxiety

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Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you'll eat, or what you'll drink, or about your body, what you'll wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. And consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. Therefore, do not worry, saying, What will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what in the world are we going to wear? These really are the three big questions that consume so much of our lives, do they not? Words that challenge us about our priorities, inviting us to question what we care most about, and to turn those concerns into action and prayer that participate in God's life and God's work in the world. I will always think of my sister-in-law as a woman completely without artifice, whose priorities were altogether clear. Elizabeth

A Life Built On Relationship

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Bruce Taylor poured herself with utter devotion into relationships, with her beloved extended family and friends, with this community at Guildford Park, always with awareness of the larger local community around her in Greensboro and its needs. EB understood that the God whose very nature is relational, triune, created us for deep inner relationships, for loving communion with God, with one another, and with the whole creation. My parents, EB's in-laws, marveled at this deeply relational intentionality, awed by David and EB's steadfast and consummate parenting skills. Convinced as they were by the evidence that Wyatt and Anne, beloved grandchildren, provided, that David and EB had raised utterly exemplary children. EB poured herself out with unusual devotion into grandparenting as well, relishing that joyful role. She was a formative, steadfast presence in the lives of Jackson, Graham, and Lee from the moments of their birth. One that has left an indelible mark upon them, a blessing that will accompany them for the rest of their days.

Laughter As Holy Strength

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Like her sister Alice, another thing I'll always remember when I think of Evie, in addition to her lack of artifice and deep devotion to inner relationship, is her distinctive laughter. A gift of ready, joyful, contagious laughter. A laughter she had in common with her beloved daughter-in-law, Laura. Anne Lamotte speaks of laughter as carbonated holiness. And Anne, Wyatt, Jackson, Graham, and Lee, along with David, have been blessed with an abundance of carbonated holiness in their lives through EB and Laura's gift of laughter. I

Loving Animals As A Sign

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would be remiss if I did not also note that EB's commitment to deep inner relationship extended to the whole creation. Evidenced in her love of gardening, of lake and ocean, of walking and hiking under the sky, so that she could consider the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Evidenced also in the significant friendships she had with animals who often accompanied her in perambulation. Dear four-legged creatures named Smoky, Bluebell, Rascal, Kip, and Toby. Ellen Davis of Duke Divinity School speaks of the wondrous experience of looking into the eyes of an animal friend and recognizing that we understand each other perfectly. That heart is speaking to heart without need for words. Indeed, she describes such friendship as a miracle, which is to say a sign that points to God, that somehow opens our eyes so that we can see God more clearly. For one of the things we learn from the miracle of friendship with animals is that love, real love, does not depend on similarity. That love can cross the boundary even between species and unite beings who are fundamentally different from the other. So Davis says, look into the eyes of your animal friend, put your ear next to his or her heart, and ponder the miracle of love that binds us to these creatures who are so different from ourselves, and gradually let that little miracle teach you about the great miracle that holds our souls in life. The miracle of love that binds each of us frail creatures to the great Lord of life.

Resurrection And The Keeper God

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EB planned this hour in which we gather in memory of her as a service of worship of that great Lord of life and as one of witness to resurrection. For not only did she live as those prepared to die, she died as those who go forth to live. Confident that death is part of our life with God, not a rupture in it, a transition that does not break the bond between the believer and God, as Scripture she appointed for our hearing bears witness. Psalm 121, for example, which describes God repeatedly as our compassionate keeper, as one who keeps our lives, who keeps our going out and our coming in from this time forth and forevermore. She also chose some of the most eloquent words the Apostle Paul pinned from Romans 8. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And as we interred Ebi's ashes in the memorial garden earlier this afternoon, we did so with these words from Psalm 139. For it was you who formed my inward parts. You knit me together in my mother's womb. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them. I try to count them. They are more than the sand. I come to the end. I am still with you. All such texts affirm the faith of the church that we do not die into nothingness, but into the eternal life and love of God. For you see, as the Apostle Paul also eloquently put it, in the most well-known passage he ever penned, 1 Corinthians 13, love never ends. A dear friend, a faculty colleague, and brilliant theologian who recently buried her beloved husband told me that that sums up her understanding of resurrection in a nutshell. Love never ends. She said, in fact, that the best way to think about God as creator is as an overflowing, powerful livingness that goes out of itself in love to make space for the other. God could have been complete in God's self, but out of infinite love, God wills into being the entire cosmos, every single bit of it. And has been continuously creating, sustaining, holding things together, supporting all of it with faithfulness, and also moving each individual part and the whole forward, preserving what is good, true, and beautiful, and overcoming what is evil, false, corrupt, violent, and destructive. God loves it all. God does not lose anything and is not finished with us yet. Martin Luther King Jr. put it this way: the ark of the universe is long and it bends toward justice. Thus,

Cosmic Hope And Bending Toward Justice

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resurrection is actually faith in God, all the way through to the end, when God will consummate the world in joyous well-being. Resurrection, you see, is cosmic, not only individual in scope. And until that day summons our participation in God's ongoing, life-giving work of mending the creation, of striving for God's will and way in the world, for God's righteousness, God's justice, as Jesus puts it. Resurrection, you know, is creation theology. Faith in a God of ever new creation, who is in the business of bringing life out of death and out of the death-tending ways of our world. When I reached the end of EB's lovely obituary last week, I was struck by its testimony to her recognition of the import of this ongoing, life-giving work of mending the creation, of ever-unfolding new creation, as it directed any gifts given in her memory to this end. To her beloved community of faith here at Guildford Park Presbyterian Church. For the church, you know, is a beachhead, a demonstration plot in this world of the future God has in mind for us all. A countercultural community whose ongoing life and ministries strive to embody that future, bearing public witness to it here and now. Memorial guests were also directed to an agency supporting refugee and immigrant services here in Greensboro. For EB shared the publicly stated conviction of the new American Pope that human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border. The arc of the universe is long and it bends towards justice. So, in short, love never ends. EB's sisters have described their lifelong experience of Evie's love for them as unconditional and as irreplaceable as she loved them ever so well and faithfully. And the memory of that blessing will accompany and strengthen them and all who have known Evie as a companion in this life for the rest of their days. Love never ends. For the sorrow and grief in our hearts in this season of mourning is part of loving her still and not its end. Love never ends. For we also are bold to proclaim that Ebi's death is part of her ongoing life with God, that she rests now in the eternal life and love of God, our dwelling place in all generations, and in the glorious company of the saints in light. I'd like to close with a prayer with which we began in its entirety from the hymnal of the United Methodist Church, which baptized EB in 1959 and set her on her way. Let us pray. O

Prayers Of Comfort And Trust

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God who gave us birth, you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray. You know our needs before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. Give to us now.

Affirming Faith Beyond Death

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Please rise in body and in spirit and let us affirm our faith. In life and in death, we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve. With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Be

Be Still My Soul And Gratitude

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still, my soul, and steadfast. Earth and heaven both are still watching, though time is draining from the clock, and your walk that was confident and quick has become slow. So be slow if you must. But let the heart still play its true part. Love still as you once loved, deeply and without patience. Let God in the world know that you are grateful. That the gift has been given. Let us pray. Finish the race and now rest from their labor. We praise you for those dear to us whom we name before you now. God of grace, especially we thank you for your servant EB, who you have now received into your presence. We thank you for the faith that you caused to dwell in her, and for the benediction that you caused her life to be among us all. For her love of family, for her love of the church, we bless you, O God, and pray that you will work in us a like miracle of your grace, that we too may be a blessing to others. May her faith, her hope, her love ever point us to the source in your grace, mercy, and love for the whole world. Most of all, we thank you for Jesus Christ, who came to live among us and died and was raised from the dead, showing us the way of love and life in an ever-broken world, and whose Spirit empowers us for such life. God of compassion, in sorrow, we receive from you the comfort that only you can give. You are our dwelling place, O God, and underneath us are your everlasting arms. Assure us of your love. Help us to be aware not only of the shadow of death, but of the splendor of eternal life. Enable us even now to face life with courage. Give us the grace and the strength to go on, knowing the great cloud of witnesses surrounds us. And let the life of EB still inspire us, comfort us, uphold us until we share together the light of your glory and the peace of your eternal presence. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. You could do that in there.

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We commend

Commendation And Final Blessing

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your servant EB. Acknowledge, we humbly pray, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the Satan and light. Amen. And now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of the love of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, and the blessing of God, Almighty and Triune, be upon you and remain with you forever. Amen.