A former youth minister at The Falls Church has been arrested and indicted on federal charges alleging the sexual grooming and abuse of boys during a ministry career spanning at least 1990 to 2008.
A federal grand jury has charged Jeffrey Turner Taylor, 66, of Milford, Ohio, with enticement of minors for illegal sexual activity and travel with intent to engage in illegal sexual conduct with minors. Taylor was arrested and made an initial court appearance on Sept. 14, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Federal prosecutors say Taylor served as youth minister at The Falls Church, in Falls Church, Virginia, from 1990 to 2002. The announcement identifies alleged conduct including sexual horseplay, intrusive questions about boys’ sexual histories, accounts of Taylor’s own sexual experiences, travel with boys to out-of-state or international ministry events, and alleged sexual molestation or attempted molestation of multiple boys.
Taylor is also alleged to have groomed and sexually abused a boy while serving at two churches in Atlanta. The Justice Department said the known alleged conduct extended from at least 1990 through 2008.
Taylor is scheduled to be arraigned in the Eastern District of Virginia on Sept. 24. If convicted on the charges announced, he faces a statutory maximum of 105 years in prison, though any sentence would be determined by a federal judge after consideration of the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
The federal case follows an independent investigation commissioned by The Falls Church Anglican in fall 2023. The parish retained an outside law firm after a family approached Bishop Christopher Warner of the Anglican Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, and the church released the resulting report and supporting materials to parishioners in April 2024.
The parish’s account says Taylor served as director of youth ministries at The Falls Church Episcopal from May 1990 to August 1999, then as director of adult discipleship from September 1999 until February 2002. The distinction matters: today’s Falls Church Anglican and The Falls Church Episcopal are separate congregations, even though the allegations concern Taylor’s service at the historic church before the later congregational division.
According to the 2024 letter from the Rev. Dr. Sam Ferguson, the investigation involved nearly 100 interviews with more than 80 witnesses. Ferguson said the report found direct sexual abuse in three cases and concluded that Taylor engaged in other inappropriate conversations and sexual grooming.
The same letter stated that the church was not found to have known of sexual abuse during Taylor’s employment, but that it should have examined some of his ministry practices more critically because they created opportunities for abuse. It also said the church fell short after receiving a credible allegation in 2007 and that Ferguson and other senior leaders should have acted more fully after allegations became known to them in 2021.
In a Sept. 15 update—also circulated through a parish response highlighted by Anglican journalist Jeff Walton on X—The Falls Church Anglican said it had learned that Taylor had been arrested and had made an initial court appearance on the two federal charges. The parish directed anyone who may have further information or who may have been victimized by Taylor to contact the FBI Washington Field Office.
The Falls Church Anglican said it remains “deeply grieved” by the investigation’s findings and continues to pray for healing. Its investigation page provides the unredacted report, exhibits, subsequent addendum, parish letters, a pastoral response from Bishop Warner, and information about prayer and counseling resources.
In his 2024 pastoral response, Bishop Warner apologized to former Cornerstone youth-program participants and their families, saying the abuse should never have occurred in the church and that its effects continued to shape the lives of students, families, friends, and the wider church.
The Falls Church Episcopal is an Episcopal Diocese of Virginia congregation at 166 E. Broad Street in Falls Church, while The Falls Church Anglican is affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America and the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. The present Episcopal congregation publicly describes itself as a distinct Episcopal community, and available recent public pages identify ongoing worship, youth, and parish events.
As of Sept. 16, Anglican.Ink was unable to locate a current public statement from The Falls Church Episcopal specifically addressing Taylor’s federal indictment or arrest.
The Justice Department is pursuing the case through Project Safe Childhood, a national DOJ initiative involving federal, state, and local agencies working to identify and prosecute child-exploitation offenses. Court filings are available through PACER in the Southern District of Ohio under case numbers 1:26-mj-750 and 1:26-mj-737.[2]
Anyone with information not previously shared with investigators, including possible survivors, is encouraged by both the DOJ and The Falls Church Anglican to contact the FBI Washington Field Office.