Mark Hollingsworth


Mark Hollingsworth Jr. was elected the 11th and current bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio on November 15, 2003, and consecrated on April 17, 2004, in Cleveland.

Early life and education

Born April 9, 1954, the son of Mark Hollingsworth Snr. and Caroline Jeanes Hollingsworth, Mark Hollingsworth Jr. and his four sisters were raised in Dover, Massachusetts. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, majoring in religious studies, and earned a Master of Divinity degree at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 1981. William E. Swing, bishop of California, ordained him deacon and priest in 1981 and 1982, respectively.

Ecclesiastical career

Hollingsworth served as chaplain to the Cathedral School for Boys in San Francisco, associate rector of St. Francis in-the-Fields Church, Harrods Creek, Kentucky, rector of St. Anne's in-the-Fields, Lincoln, Massachusetts, and Archdeacon of the Diocese of Massachusetts. In the dioceses of California, Kentucky, and Massachusetts he served a variety of organizations including diocesan clergy associations, hospital and AIDS ministry boards, diocesan trustees and councils, camp and conference center boards, and as chaplain to his local fire department. He was a clerical deputy to both the 2000 and 2003 General Conventions from the Diocese of Massachusetts. He was founder of Epiphany at Sea, a program taking inner-city middle school students to sea on traditional fishing schooners, and he was a conference leader for CREDO. He currently serves on the CREDO Advisory Board and as trustee for the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal Preaching Foundation, the Ocean Classroom Foundation, and Kenyon College.