Archbishop Mark (Arndt) of Berlin and Germany was Ruling Bishop of the Diocese of Great Britain and Ireland from 1986-2017.
Archbishop Mark was born in Eastern Germany in 1941. His family managed to move to the West in 1954, settling in Frankfurt am Main. He studied Slavic Languages and completed his Doctorate in Ancient Russian Literature. He entered the Orthodox Church in 1964, later enrolling in the Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade. He came under the influence of the renowned Serbian Orthodox Theologian, Father Justin Popovic and he decided to enter the monastic life, becoming Brother Mark in 1975, having been tonsured by Bishop Paul of Stuttgart. He was ordained priest in 1976. Father Mark was consecrated as Vicar Bishop of Munich and Southern Germany, and he moved the bishop’s residence to the Monastery of St Job of Pochaev where he revived the monastery along Athonite lines.
He has energetically ruled the Diocese of Germany and brought about much church construction and building up of parish life. While Ruling Hierarch of our Diocecse, his initiatives included the building of our own beautiful Cathedral in London. As he said at his consecration, “…building the Kingdom of God in oneself and in one’s parishioners … acquiring experience and practice in the inner unseen warfare …” is what… “places Holy Orthodoxy immeasurably higher than all religions and idiologies calling themselves Christian.” After serving as Ruling Bishop of our Diocese (in addition to that of Germany) for thirty years, His Eminence Archbishop Mark petitioned the Holy Synod to be released from the governance of Great Britain and Ireland, and presently remains Ruling Hierarch of Berlin and Germany, as well as the Vice-President of the Synod of Bishops and the Hierarch responsible for the ROCOR Ecclesiastical Mission in the Holy Land.