Mark (Arndt)
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Archbishop Mark (secular name Michael Arndt; born January 29, 1941, Chemnitz, Saxony) is the Archbishop of Berlin, Germany and of Great Britain of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and Overseer of the Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.
Life
As a child, Michael attended the schools in Frankfurt am Main, graduating in 1960. After finishing school he volunteered for military service in West Germany for one year. Later he was recalled up to serve several times, rising to the rank of First lieutenant. In 1962, he entered Frankfurt University, then later transferred to the University of Heidelberg. His academic program included studies in English and Slavic languages and literature.
In the course of his study of Slavistics, he became a specialist in a number of Slavic languages and literature, including Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Czech and Macedonian. He completed his PhD with the doctoral thesis "Biographical Literature of the Tver Duchy in the 14th and 15th Centuries".
During his studies of Russian, he became acquainted with the Russian émigré community in Frankfurt. While studying under Professor Dmitri Chizhevsky at the University of Heidelberg, he visited the ROCOR Church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Mannheim.
In 1964, he converted to Orthodox Christianity and became a reader. He later made trips to Mount Athos where he developed friendships with many of the elders, including two Hieroschemamonks named Seraphim and Abel.
He continued his theological studies in 1973 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia graduating with a degree in theology in 1979. In Belgrade, Michael became part of a tightly-knit group of Serbia elder's students through Archimandrite Justin (Popović), hieromonks Amfilohije (Radović), Atanasije (Jevtić), Artemije (Radosavljević) and Irinej (Bulović), now bishops of the Church of Serbia. In 1975, Michael chose a monastic life and was tonsured a monk with the name Mark by Bishop Paul (Pavlov) of Stuttgart.
He was ordained a deacon in the summer of 1975, and a hieromonk three days later by Bishop Paul. Hieromonk Mark was appointed Deputy Rector of the Russian church in Wiesbaden, Germany. In 1976, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
In 1980, he was consecrated bishop, and was installed as the (ROCOR) Bishop of Munich and Southern Germany succeeding bishop Paul (Pavlov).
In 1982, he was assigned as Bishop of Berlin and All Germany.
In April 1986 he was appointed Ruling Bishop of the Diocese of Great Britain and Ireland and Rector of St. Alexander Nevsky Church in Copenhagen.
In 1990, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.
In 1997, he was also appointed Overseer of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.
Archbishop Mark has been one of the most ardent supporters of Church unity between ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate, and worked tirelessly to see this goal achieved. From 1993 to 1997, he headed the dialog between the German-based dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate in the reunited Germany. Since 2000, he has been the President of the Committee on the Unity of the Russian Church, and since 2003, the President of the Commission on talks with the Moscow Patriarchate. This was a large part of the impetus which brought about the reunification of the ROCOR and Moscow Patriarchal churches, which finally took place in 2006.
7–12 June 2009 he was a participant of the Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference IV of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Since July 27, 2009 he is Member of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church.