J. Mark Zimmerman | |
---|---|
Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Western Anglicans | |
Church | Anglican Church in North America |
Diocese | Western Anglicans |
In office | 2023–present |
Orders | |
Consecration | February 28, 2014 by Robert Duncan |
Personal details | |
Born | 1956 (age 67–68) |
Previous post(s) | Bishop of the Southwest (2014–2020) |
John Mark Zimmerman (born 1956) is an American Anglican bishop. He was the first diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Southwest, which has jurisdiction in west Texas, New Mexico and Mexico in the Anglican Church in North America.
Zimmerman was born in 1956 to an Episcopal priest. [1] After completing college, he met his future wife, Cynthia, and they worked overseas, teaching English in Oman. [1] Zimmerman received a call to ministry and attended Trinity School for Ministry, graduating with an M.Div. in 1986. Early in his ordained career, he spent nine years as a priest in New Mexico. [2]
From 1999 to 2008, Zimmerman was rector of St. Francis-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Somerset, Pennsylvania, growing it from a 30-member congregation to nearly 100 in Sunday attendance and debt-free status for the first time in its history. In 2008―the same year that the majority of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted to leave the episcopal church, thus forming the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh―Zimmerman announced to the congregation that he was leaving the Episcopal Church. Eighty percent of St. Francis' members followed him, and the new congregation, called Somerset Anglican Fellowship, left its building and began meeting at a local mall. In 2011, Somerset Anglican Fellowship purchased the former St. Paul Presbyterian Church in Somerset and relocated there. [2] Zimmerman launched a Young Life chapter in Somerset and started a Spanish-speaking outreach service. [1]
The newly formed Diocese of the Southwest elected Zimmerman as its first diocesan bishop in 2014. He was consecrated at the Church of St. Clement in El Paso by Archbishop Robert Duncan on February 28, 2014. [3] The diocese was small, with just 14 congregations spread across a large and remote geographic area. [2]
During his episcopacy, the diocese grew to 22 congregations. [4] In 2016, Zimmerman joined fellow ACNA Bishops Eric Menees, Keith Andrews, Kevin Bond Allen, and Todd Hunter to streamline the ordination process in western U.S. ACNA dioceses, with a joint exam and a joint examining board that would allow clergy ordained under the standards to serve in any participating diocese. [5] In November 2019, Zimmerman ordained Farhid Adabache to the priesthood in Fresnillo, Mexico. Adabache was the first Mexican national to be ordained by the ACNA to serve a Mexican congregation. [6]
In 2020, Zimmerman began winding down his episcopal duties after accepting a call to serve for a two-year period as a half-time bishop-in-residence and interim rector at Christ Church Phoenix in the Diocese of Western Anglicans. [7] Since March 2023, he has been suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Western Anglicans with charge over the Yellowstone Missionary District, a grouping of 10 churches across Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming seeking to grow into a future diocese. [8]
The Anglican Church of Mexico, originally known as Church of Jesus is the Anglican province in Mexico and includes five dioceses. Although Mexican in origin and not the result of any foreign missionary effort, the Church uses the colors representing Mexico as well as those of the United States-based Episcopal Church in its heraldic insignia or shield, recognizing a historical connection with that US church which began with obtaining the apostolic succession.
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The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported more than 1,000 congregations and more than 128,000 members in 2023. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014. In June 2024, the College of Bishops elected Steve Wood as the third archbishop of the ACNA. Authority was transferred to him during the closing Eucharist at the ACNA Assembly 2024 conference in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. The diocese comprises 56 congregations and its headquarters are in Fort Worth, Texas.
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