Multiple abuse allegations.
At two churches.
Over 20 years.
Never Prosecuted.
This summary focuses on Taylor’s years leading the Cornerstone youth ministry at The Falls Church Anglican (TFCA)* from 1990-2002 because this chapter of Taylor’s story is the most publicly known. Additional details are on the Timeline and Reports pages.
From the late 1980s-2009, Jeff Taylor was a youth minister at churches in Winnetka, Illinois, Falls Church, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia.
It is alleged that for decades, he sexually abused and groomed boys.
Allegations
In 2003-2004, allegations of misconduct surfaced at Church of the Apostles (COTA) in Atlanta. In 2004, two years after Taylor had left TFCA, TFCA Rector John Yates received a report of these allegations from a youth ministry staffer at COTA. In 2007, 2009, and 2015, adult survivors of abuse at TFCA brought allegations of sexual abuse and grooming to Yates, and parents of a survivor brought allegations to him in 2021. Survivors or their families asked Yates for investigations in 2007, 2015 and 2021. Yates, and his successor Sam Ferguson, repeatedly failed to investigate or share the allegations with the vestry, Bishop and congregation.
The TFCA investigation report describes sexual abuse allegations of three boys during Taylor's time at TFCA. The Washington Post included allegations of assault and rape of more victims from COTA and a boys ministry called Kairos in Atlanta.
In addition, the report shares the insidious nature of Taylor's alleged grooming of the TFCA and Atlanta church communities. Taylor allegedly groomed boys in two primary ways. First, he allegedly normalized inappropriate physical touch through excessive horseplay, wrestling, giving wedgies sometimes to the point where the underwear’s elastic would be ripped off, “nut- smacking” (smacking a child’s genitalia over their clothes), “oil checks” and “credit card swipes” (both included touching a child between their butt cheeks outside their clothes). This sometimes progressed to Taylor allegedly touching children’s genitalia over their clothes in a one-on-one encounters.
Second, Taylor allegedly groomed hundreds of boys through highly inappropriate conversations with boys about their sexuality, and Taylor’s sex life and sexuality. For many boys this occurred every time they met with Taylor, which often meant weekly. Taylor’s discipleship model of one-to-one meetings where he took boys on “Coke dates,” a model which he sold to church leadership, provided these opportunities. He would ask probing questions about masturbation habits and penis sizes and share about his own sex life and sexual history. He explained to boys, who had not even reached puberty, how to masturbate.
By consistently pushing personal boundaries, he groomed the boys by normalizing these behaviors to where the boys thought it was exactly that — normal, and so they didn’t question it. Though the “Coke dates” broke the TFCA child protection policies, because he had groomed church leadership and parents so well, they trusted him implicitly, even to the point of letting their sons travel with him alone on weekend speaking engagements.
TFCA Investigation
In April 2021, a couple lost their son, an abuse Survivor, to alcohol abuse, and went to TFCA retired rector John Yates to request an investigation. Rector Sam Ferguson neglected to meet with the family and believed that it wasn’t his responsibility to personally address the situation since it happened so long ago and before his time. In Fall 2023, frustrated from two years of intermittent conversations with Yates that resulted in little action, the parents appealed to Bishop Chris Warner, who directed TFCA to start an investigation.
Had the parents not gone to the Bishop, it is likely that TFCA would have never investigated Taylor’s alleged abuse, since it had never been investigated or shared with the congregation since first reported by a Survivor in 2007, 16 years prior. However, Yates first knew about allegations in Atlanta in 2004, and was told of a concerning story in 1993 when Taylor was employed at TFCA.
In Fall 2023, TFCA hired employment lawyer Eddie Isler, of Isler Dare, to investigate. The process was described as independent with an unlimited scope, but some observers found significant flaws in Isler’s process. TFCA did minimal direct outreach to former youth group members to invite their participation and mostly relied on word of mouth. TFCA sent one email to 75 former youth group members, but at any given time in Taylor’s 12 year tenure, Cornerstone had several hundred students.
Some former youth group members lost faith in the process, felt unsafe, felt their information was mishandled, or saw it left out of the TFCA report, released in April 2024. Isler revealed one Survivor’s identity in a congregational meeting. The August 2024 addendum to the report contained an inappropriate and sanctimonious warning to the Cornerstone community: “the question that remains..is whether they will persist in a season of anger and resentment that this darkness was visited upon them, or whether they will move through this season towards healing and reconciliation.” Isler has admitted to some of these mistakes and said in the Report Addendum that while he performed the task with diligence, he has not done it perfectly.
While the TFCA report appeared comprehensive (80+ pages), some found it to be too friendly to TFCA and missing critical facts, including that abuse survivors brought allegations to Yates in 2015, and that Christ Chuch reported receiving allegations from Yates in 2009, but he claims to not remember sharing them.
For those who knew Taylor, and who trusted TFCA, COTA and Christ Church, reading the report was brutal.
Churches’ Responses Before the 2023 Investigation
In 2002, Taylor left TFCA and joined Church of the Apostles (COTA) in Atlanta. When allegations of inappropriate conversations with boys arose in Fall 2003, there was no formal investigation. In 2004, Yates was told by a COTA youth ministry worker that there were allegations against Taylor. While the report doesn’t give the date of this conversation, it most likely that occurred before April 2004 when Taylor left COTA. Regardless, Yates didn’t call COTA leadership to ask more questions. He didn’t take any action at The Falls Church, and he didn’t call Winnetka Bible Church to inform them. Also early in 2004, pornography was found on Taylor’s computer.
While Taylor was under review for this, he voluntarily resigned before he could be fired and joined Christ Church of Atlanta. During the hiring process in late April 2004, Christ Church asked COTA for a reference. They were told Taylor had left voluntarily, and there hadn’t been any issues with him. John Yates was also asked, and he gave a positive recommendation. If he heard of the COTA allegations against Taylor before April, then it is concerning that he gave the positive recommendation anyway. If he heard the COTA allegations after he gave the positive recommendation, perhaps he should have called Christ Church to retract his recommendation and make them aware.
After hearing the 2007 allegation, TFCA, to their credit, reported it to Christ Church Atlanta, who removed Taylor from youth ministry. But TFCA did not contact COTA or Winnetka Bible Church, Taylor’s two previous churches. But because he denied the allegation and because Christ Church was not able to speak to the 2007 abuse Survivor, Taylor remained on staff in a different role, but with a directive from the Bishop to stay away from youth.
In 2009 there are two stories, so one or both could be true. The first story comes from the report which says that when Taylor violated the Bishop’s s directive in 2009, Christ Church opened an investigation, Taylor was forced to resign, and was given to the choice to surrender his ordination, or submit to an ecclesiastical trial with his ordination at stake. He chose the former and lost his status as an ordained priest.
The other story, as told in the Post article, says that Rev Alfred Sawyer of Christ Church received a phone call from John Yates saying that at least one more Survivor had come forward. Sawyer ordered an investigation. Yates now says he doesn’t remember this conversation,
More details about TFCA’s responses to the 2007, 2015 and 2021 allegations are in the TFCA report. The report contains no information about the 2009 allegations, but they are mentioned in the Washington Post article (1/15/25).
The Impact
Whether the allegations were intentionally covered up or mishandled with no malice, the churches’ failures to conduct public investigations and share allegations with the other churches where Taylor served allowed him to continue his alleged abuse. The lack of transparency also caused further harm to abuse Survivors, their families, and the church communities.
For over thirty years, abuse Survivors have suffered in silent shame, each walking their own painful journey. Pastors did not take abuse Survivors’ and their parents’ allegations seriously. Parents and congregations were in the dark and weren’t able to protect their boys or help their adult sons who were traumatized by the abuse.
Governance failed when rectors did not tell their vestries and bishops, and investigations didn’t happen or were severely delayed. Though charged with a sacred responsibility to protect children, leaders did not proactively educate themselves on how abuse happens in churches and how one allegation almost always leads to more. They chose to protect their institutions and their reputations instead of protecting their flocks.
Because they were charmed by Taylor’s charisma and his large, successful youth programs, he was not managed well. He openly violated child protection policies, like driving kids alone in cars, which he sold to leadership as a necessary, foundational element of his one-on-one discipleship model. Because this wasn’t challenged, it gave him free reign to allegedly abuse. There was not enough accountability, and for years there was no repentance or amends made to those who suffered.
Now, twenty years after allegations were first reported to TFCA, things are starting to change. Since TFCA’s April 2024 report and August 2024 addendum, TFCA has taken steps to respond and has started an abuse Survivors counseling fund. Bishop Warner is engaged with TFCA and issued a noteworthy pastoral response letter. In that Nov 2024 letter, he revealed that he issued formal admonishments to former Rector John Yates and current Rector Sam Ferguson for their mishandling of the abuse allegations.
But because these admonishments are secret, the TFCA congregation does not know what corrective actions the Bishop has prescribed, so there is no accountability beyond the Bishop himself to ensure Yates and Ferguson fulfill them. Long term, the admonishments will have no impact on their careers or status as priests as long as the corrective actions are followed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, little attention has been paid to former youth group members who are now grown, especially the women, many of whom recall feeling like “second class citizens” compared to the boys. The women now know Cornerstone was not a safe place because it had at least three male perpetrators including Taylor in the 1990s. These women are now facing a frightening truth: they were not safe either, they were just lucky.
For example, despite multiple requests, no former youth group members or Survivors have ever been members of the Special Committee that TFCA formed in Fall 2023 to respond to the investigation. TFCA has made pastoral care available to anyone via its Care Team, but some former youth group members have no interest engaging with the institution that not only failed to protect them as children, but is excluding them now.
Some former youth group men have found themselves reading the report only to realize for the very first time that their experiences with Jeff Taylor were actually grooming or abuse. How does one cope with that?
Both former youth group members and abuse Survivors find themselves shaken and shattered, trying to examine their past in the light of this awful truth, and make sense of what was good and what was evil. And where was God?
Some have lost their faith entirely. Some have belief but no faith community, and some have both but still wrestle with deep questions. Many are carrying grief for their abuse Survivor friends, while simultaneously carrying rage for Taylor, a man they used to love and admire. Some take a broader view, concluding that this is another example of the religious trauma they felt growing up in Evangelicalism and purity culture. Others feel deep empathy for Yates, are convinced he did the best he could, believe he is being fully truthful, and have quickly extended their forgiveness. And many aren’t even aware of Taylor’s alleged abuse because TFCA put very little effort into outreach.
But this is only part of the story. Since the report was released, we don’t know what has happened at the Atlanta churches. There still has never been a public investigation at Apostles. While it is likely, we don’t know if there were victims at Winnetka Bible Church in the late 1980s, or if there have been victims since 2009, when Taylor lived in Athens, GA (2010-2013), and now in Cincinnati, Ohio (2013-present).
It is our hope that the full story comes out, that church leaders face full accountability, that Survivors receive the help and support they deserve, that FBI gathers the evidence and witnesses needed to build a solid case, and that Jeff Taylor is tried for his alleged crimes.
Information about Taylor’s time in other churches comes from public sources and the TFCA report, which has greater detail. This narrative will be updated as new developments emerge.
*During Taylor’s TFCA tenure, the church was called The Falls Church Episcopal (TFCE). In 2006, when the church left the Episcopal church and affiliated with what became the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), they changed their name to The Falls Church Anglican. To minimize confusion, when we refer to TFCA, we are referring to the same church where Jeff Taylor led Cornerstone from 1990-2002 under Rector John Yates. Yates retired in 2019 and was succeeded by Rector Sam Ferguson.