The Rev. Father David Epps, rector of Peachtree City's Christ the King Episcopal Church (CEC) and Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of the Armed Forces, will be the guest speaker during Services of Ordination to the Priesthood on Friday, Nov. 5, at the Cathedral Church of the Messiah in Jacksonville, Fla. Epps is a regular columnist for The Citizen newspapers, appearing in the Friday and Weekend editions, and is a contributing writer for Sursum Corda, a denominational magazine.

The ordination services will be the concluding service of the 1999 Southeast Regional Convocation of the International Communion of Charismatic Episcopal Churches.

Also serving during the convocation as speakers will be Archbishop Dale Howard, Jacksonville, of the Southeast Province and the Diocese of Florida; Archbishop Randolph sly, Washington, D.C., of the Eastern Province and Diocese of the Potomac; Bishop Charles Jones, Selma, Ala., of the Diocese of Alabama; Bishop Craig Bates, Malverne, N.Y., of the Diocese of the Northeast; and the Very Rev. Jacob Danner, Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Messiah, Jacksonville.

“A highlight of the convocation,” Epps said, “will be the Thursday evening consecration to the office of Bishop of Fr. Prakash Yuhanna, who will then assume episcopal oversight of the troubled nation of Pakistan. Fr. Yuhanna has been repeatedly attacked by Muslim extremists and, in a near-fatal encounter, was ambushed, kidnapped, had his throat slit, and was rolled inside a rug and tossed into a river to die.”

“The possibility of death is a grim reality for Fr. Prakash,” said Epps, who has twice had the bishop-elect in his church in Peachtree City. “He, more than anyone else, knows the great dangers he faces. Yet, he is committed to bringing the Gospel of Christ to Pakistan.”

Yuhanna has personally planted over 10 churches in his home nation in the past two years. Officials in Pakistan refused to allow Yuhanna's family to come to the United States for the consecration ceremony.

The convocation also will feature a number of workshops for clergy and laity with workshop leaders coming from across the South.

Christ the King Church, established as a home missions church in 1996, currently meets in Peachtree City and is in the process of purchasing 11.5 acres of land on Ga. Hwy. 34 in Coweta County.

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