Deacons Jason Epps of Senoia and James Taylor of Peachtree City will be ordained to the sacred order of Priests on Pentecost Eve, Saturday, June 11, at 5 p.m. at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Sharpsburg. The men will be ordained by The Most Rev’d David Epps, Bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South. A reception will follow the ordination service.
A Hogansville native, Taylor was ordained as a deacon in 2010 at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Sharpsburg.
Among his many degrees are a master of science in group and organizational behavior from Marymount University, and a doctor of pastoral counseling from Andersonville Theological Seminary. Taylor is currently enrolled as a special student at St. Michael’s Seminary and has completed several semesters of clinical pastoral education.
Taylor has extensive experience in ministry including serving as a youth pastor at Langsdale Baptist Church, Langsdale, Ala., youth music director and youth counselor at Ox Hill Baptist Church, Chantilly, Va., Prison Chaplain, Fairfax, Va., youth and adult music director at Christ the King Presbyterian Church, Vienna, Va., and has had a number of other assignments and responsibilities.
Taylor also taught graduate courses and served as an adjunct professor at Marymount University and at George Washington University
Taylor has served in a number of capacities at the Cathedral of Christ the King, including licensed liturgical minister, lector, prayer minister, and teacher. He is involved in the International Order of St. Luke the Physician and assisted in helping to form a local chapter which is based at Christ the King. He is currently teaching in that program.
Outside the local parish, Taylor is a chaplain for the Peachtree City Police Department and is the associate chaplain at Fayette Piedmont Hospital. He is also a leader in the community emergency response team and in Job Seekers, a Christian ministry to the unemployed professional.
He and his wife Karen Romano-Taylor live in Peachtree City.
Jason Douglas Epps is the oldest of three sons born to the Rev. David and Cynthia Epps. He spent his early years in Tennessee and Colorado. The family moved to Peachtree City when Epps was 11 years old.
Growing up in Georgia, Epps played offensive guard and defensive end for the McIntosh High School Chiefs, and in the fall of 1989 he received the Offensive Lineman of the Year award at the end of his senior season.
After graduating, he received a football scholarship to Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee, Ill. where he played varsity offensive guard for the Olivet Tigers. After two years, Epps transferred to Georgia State University, graduating in December of 1994 with a bachelor of arts in history.
During his senior year at Georgia State, Epps met and married Jessica Paula Pierce of Griffin and, after graduation he was sworn in as a police officer with the Peachtree City Police Department in April of 1995. Currently he is a lieutenant detective in the Criminal Investigations Division. At the Peachtree City Police Department, Epps is the senior firearms instructor and a member of the Honor Guard/Saber Team
After his father was led to become a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church, pioneering Christ the King CEC in Sharpsburg, and contrary to everything he had always thought he wanted for himself, Epps says he felt led to begin the process of Holy Orders in the CEC.
In 2005, Epps began the Master of Ministry Program at Saint Michael’s Seminary in Manchester under Canon Robert Wills, and was ordained into the diaconate in the Mid-South Diocese of the CEC on Sept. 10, 2006 in Sharpsburg. He graduated from St. Michael’s Seminary in 2011.
Epps currently serves as a deacon at Christ the King in Sharpsburg and is a member of the Rector’s Council. He is also a diocesan investigator in the event allegations are lodged against clergy of the diocese.
Epps lives in Senoia with his wife, Jesse and their four children, Victoria Sabrina, Isaac Pierce, Eliana Elizabeth and Rebekah Grace.
