Quick Facts
Biography
Mark Van Koevering is an American prelate of the Episcopal Church, who is the eight and current Bishop of Lexington.
Biography
Van Koevering was consecrated as Bishop of Niassa, Mozambique, part of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, in 2003, where he served until November 2015.
Van Koevering was raised in the Christian Reformed Church. He studied agriculture and plant breeding at university, working in Thailand, China and then as an agriculturist with DanChurchAid in Niassa, Mozambique. There he met and married Helen, who was working with the Christian Council of Mozambique, reuniting war orphans with their families. He was the diocesan director of development when he felt called to the ministry. He trained Trinity College, Bristol and was ordained in Wales, working under Rowan Williams, the then archbishop in Newport when the people of Niassa elected him as their bishop. His wife Helen was ordained shortly before leaving Wales in 2003.
Until April 2011 the Van Koeverings' ministry in Niassa was supported through USPG. In April 2011 The Van Koevering Trust Fund was set up to secure funds for the furthering of the Van Koeverings' ministry in Niassa.
In November 2015, he moved back to the United States, to become the assistant bishop at the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia.In February 2018, he became the Bishop Provisional of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington