Father Ellis DePriest, S.M., pastor of St. Joseph parish, Marietta, has been appointed rector, Marist College, Washington, D.C., where he was once in the major seminary.

“Father DePriest has had marked influence on our lives at St. Joseph’s” said Howard Duff, president of the Home and School Association and a member of the parish board of education, “and he has brought the Church to the people-not just the people to the Church. We have greatly appreciate his patient guidance in helping laymen to assume more responsibility in church affairs.”

Born in Natchez, Miss., he attended public schools in Natchez and Alexandria, and was professed in the Society of Mary, Marist Fathers in 1947. After he complete his studies at the Marist College in 1953, he was ordained to the priesthood.

From 1953 until 1962 he served as professor of Sacred Music and Liturgy at the college in Washington and earned his Master’s in Sacred Music. Then he pursued his doctoral studies in the filed of liturgy on a fellowship at Catholic University in Washington. For a year and a half he was a member of the staff of the Child Guidance Clinic at the University. Prior to coming to St. Joseph’s, he served as assistant pastor at the Church of St. Pius X in Bedford, Ohio.

As pastor of St. Joseph’s, Father DePriest has initiated many liturgical changes in the Mass and the church sanctuary, Masses in the home, built a new convent, revitalized the church choir and music, expanded the duties of the laymen’s organizations of the laymen’s organizations such as the parish councils, and organized the parish board of education and other committees recommended by the recent Synod.

Duff continued, “He has been a leader in developing dialogue with other denominations so that there might be more knowledge, understand, and tolerance among Christians in the community.” He helped to organize the Cobb County Christian Dialogue, participating on the panel at the first meeting and planned joint prayer meetings for closer unity. He is a member of the Marietta Rotary Club, Committee on Medicine, Law, and Religion, and the Ministerial Association.

On the diocesan level he is a member of the Liturgical and Music Commission, chairman of the Committee on Sacred Music, and a member of the American Guild of Organists and Choirmasters.

“St. Joseph’s is greatly disappointed that Father DePriest is leaving, but Marist College is gaining a very talented and capable leader,” concluded Duff.