{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}} {{short description|American Anglican bishop (born 1956)}}{{Distinguish|Mark Zimmermann}}{{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific_prefix = The Right Reverend | name = J. Mark Zimmerman | title = Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Western Anglicans | image = Bishop Mark Zimmerman.png | alt = | caption = Zimmerman speaks at an Anglicans for Life service preceding the 2020 March for Life. | church = Anglican Church in North America | archdiocese = | diocese = Western Anglicans | see = | term = 2023–present | predecessor = | successor = |<!-- Orders --> | ordination = | ordained_by = | consecration = February 28, 2014 | consecrated_by = Robert Duncan | rank = <!-- Personal details --> | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1956}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | previous_post = 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.
==Early life, education, and early ministry==
Zimmerman was born in 1956 to an Episcopal priest.<ref name="acna-interview">{{cite web |title=MEET BISHOP MARK ZIMMERMAN OF THE DIOCESE OF THE SOUTHWEST |url=https://anglicanchurch.net/meet-bishop-mark-zimmerman-of-the-diocese-of-the-southwest/ |website=Anglican Church in North America |access-date=November 8, 2022}}</ref> After completing college, he met his future wife, Cynthia, and they worked overseas, teaching English in Oman.<ref name="acna-interview" /> 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.<ref name="aac">{{cite web |title=OUR JOB IS NOT TO LOOK BACK |url=https://americananglican.org/job/ |website=Encompass |publisher=American Anglican Council |access-date=November 8, 2022}}</ref>
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.<ref name="aac" /> Zimmerman launched a Young Life chapter in Somerset and started a Spanish-speaking outreach service.<ref name="acna-interview" />
==Episcopacy==
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.<ref name="tsm">{{cite web |title=MARK ZIMMERMAN CONSECRATED AS ACNA BISHOP OF THE SOUTHWEST |url=https://www.tsm.edu/2014/03/18/mark_zimmerman_consecrated_as_acna_bishop_of_the_southwest/ |website=Trinity School for Ministry |access-date=November 8, 2022}}</ref> The diocese was small, with just 14 congregations spread across a large and remote geographic area.<ref name="aac" />
During his episcopacy, the diocese grew to 22 congregations.<ref name="acna-stats">{{cite web |title=Congregational Reporting: 2021 in Review |url=https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rp70xuodivly2bm/AABmdX40gdldjDnRub3Puloka/Congregational%20Reporting/Congregational%20Report%20of%202021%20to%20Provincial%20Council%202022%20FINAL.pdf?dl=0 |publisher=Anglican Church in North America |access-date=November 8, 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name="acna-west">{{cite news |title=Western ACNA dioceses amalgamate ordination process |url=https://anglican.ink/2016/04/19/western-acna-dioceses-amalgamate-ordination-process/ |access-date=November 8, 2022 |work=Anglican Ink |date=April 29, 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref name="mexico">{{cite news |last1=Virtue |first1=David |title=ACNA ORDAINS FIRST MEXICAN PRIEST |url=https://virtueonline.org/acna-ordains-first-mexican-priest |access-date=November 8, 2022 |work=Virtue Online |date=January 8, 2020}}</ref>
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.<ref name="ccp">{{cite web |last1=Collins |first1=Chuck |title=Interim Clergy Staffing Plan |url=https://christchurchphoenix.org/interim-clergy-staffing-plan/ |website=Christ Church Phoenix |access-date=November 8, 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name="dwa-profile">{{cite web |title=Yellowstone Missionary District |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AbWyi4PVfb6G_-q7h9NrNZZZMNn0y208/view |website=Profile of the Diocese of Western Anglicans and Yellowstone Missionary District |publisher=Diocese of Western Anglicans |access-date=7 September 2023 |page=20}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{S-start}} {{S-rel|ac}} {{S-bef|before=Winfield Mott<br/><small>(''vicar general'')</small>}} {{S-ttl|title=I Bishop of the Southwest|years=2014–2020}} {{S-aft|after=Steven Tighe}} {{S-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmerman, John Mark}} Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America