6 New Priests Ordained in May 16 Ceremony at All Saints, Winter Park

The Lord provides parishioners in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida many reasons to celebrate their faith throughout the year. On Saturday, May 16, before a packed sanctuary at All Saints, Winter Park, the ordination of six individuals to the Sacred Order of Priests served as one such anointed occasion.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin S. Holcomb ordained the Rev. Jeremy Steele Adams, the Rev. Carlos Ernesto Cabrera, the Rev. James Andrew Flood IV, the Rev. Dr. Ernest Nnamdi Ogbozor, the Rev. Douglas James Romaine and the Rev. Dr. Sebastiana Gagliano Springmann into the priesthood, proclaiming that Saturday a “great day for our diocese and for the church.” The bishop previously ordained Adams, Cabrera, Ogbozor, Romaine and Springmann – along with five others – to the transitional diaconate in a November 2025 ceremony at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando.

Holcomb began his sermon by referring to Isaiah 6:8 and the prophet’s divine commissioning in the temple, where Isaiah said, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, ‘Here I am! Send me.’”

“For those being ordained, this is what it can actually feel like,” Holcomb said. “’Am I ready for this? Should I really be doing this now?’ Those who have been ordained for five, 10, 20 or 40 years, we still think the same. Underneath the gratitude and the joy is the question, ‘Who am I to be entrusted with this?’”

These most recent ordinands can relate; all will take on their new calling with a deep sense of humility and determination.

The Rev. Jeremy Adams

Adams, a recent M.Div. graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary who served at Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden, in various positions from 2016-2023, has been the part-time student ministry coordinator at All Saints, Chevy Chase, Maryland, where he was previously a seminarian intern. As of June 1, he will begin a curacy there while his wife, Garine, remains a seminarian at VTS.

Adams said his journey to the priesthood was more of a process of discerning a spiritual call than a conscious decision. He eventually entered the diaconal process, which led to this next step.

“Eventually, I accepted that I was being led towards the ministry of a priest in the Episcopal church,” he said. “This gentle nudging from the Holy Spirit continues to draw me closer into a relationship with God. I’m both excited to take this next step forward in my journey living into God’s call in my life and humbled by the responsibilities that come from serving as a priest.”

The Rev. Carlos Cabrera

An attorney and litigator in the Dominican Republic for 15 years, Cabrera made a life-changing decision to emigrate to the U.S. with his family in 2020. He felt a deep calling to enter ordained ministry and has since served as a lay minister at St. John’s, Kissimmee, and as a Diocesan Board member. He also proclaimed the Gospel during a Palm Sunday online vigil presided over by the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church, on March 29. Cabrera has served as deacon and resident at Grace, Ocala, since November 2025.

While the location of his future service is undecided, Cabrera said he takes his calling very seriously.

“Being ordained is both a profound honor and a humbling responsibility,” Cabrera said. “Ten years ago, I never would have imagined that God would call me into this work. It is not simply a personal milestone, but a deeper commitment to serve Christ and his Church with faithfulness, compassion and integrity.”

The Rev. James Flood

Flood has been a deacon at St. Jude’s, Orange City, for nine years. He said he wrestled with the Holy Spirit for nearly three years before ordination to the diaconate but eventually surrendered that decision to the Lord.

In 2021, God began to prompt him to become a priest. This time, it didn’t take as long for him to surrender to the call.

“Before I became a deacon, I kept telling the Holy Spirit, ‘I’m not your man,’” Flood said. “About five years ago, He began calling me as a priest. I only argued with him for about a year because this time, I learned my lesson. I’m super excited about my ordination because it gives me an opportunity to serve God in new ways.”

The Rev. Dr. Ernest Ogbozor

Ogbozor, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, has served as a deacon at St. Mary’s, Daytona Beach, since November 2025. He said he didn’t fully understand at first why God was calling him to the priesthood, but it gradually became clearer during his time as an aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Northern Nigeria. There, he served communities devastated by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

“Witnessing immense human suffering alongside extraordinary resilience and hope led me to see my work as more than a profession and awakened in me a deeper sense that God was calling me to a life of ministry and service,” he said. “I sought to deepen my understanding of scripture and to seek what Christ describes in John 4:14 as the ‘living water’ that truly satisfies human thirst.”

The Rev. Douglas Romaine

Romaine worked as a youth pastor for the better part of 18-plus years in three states, moving into youth ministry at Church of the Incarnation, Oviedo, in 2021. He transferred to Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden, after ordination as a deacon in November 2025. He said the grounding of the creeds and liturgy combined with his passion for the gospel have made his service as a deacon a “good fit.”

He said he is thrilled to discover God’s next step for him, especially considering Bishop Holcomb’s emphasis on the spreading the gospel.

“This priority has attracted me to become ordained in this diocese, since I have continued to discover ways to spread the gospel in and through previous full-time ministry roles,” Romaine said. “This priority is of utmost importance to me as a disciple of Jesus Christ.”

The Rev. Dr. Sebastiana G. Springmann

The only female ordinand, Springmann took an unusual path to the priesthood. A dentist by vocation, she sold her practice, her office building and her home after retiring at the end of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said it was a “period of discerning what God had in store for me next.”

She and her family moved from Virginia to Florida in mid-2022, when she began discerning a transition into the priesthood with the diocese. She met with Holcomb, then serving as canon for vocations. Since November 2025, she has served as a deacon at St. James, Leesburg.

“The Holy Spirit has been powerfully present in my ministry as a deacon, and I can only imagine what is in store for me as a priest,” Springmann said. “Our God is awesome. The ordination as a priest is the next level of God’s anointing on my life that will empower me to serve him and his people in a deeper, more pastoral way.”