Mark was born September 2, 1956 in Pomona, California, the third of four children born to Hal and Eleanor Holmerud. Mark is an eighth-generation native Californian, tracing his family’s history to early Hispanic settlers of the eighteenth century. He grew up in Solana Beach, a town located on the Pacific Ocean twenty miles north of San Diego. After graduating from San Dieguito High School in Encinitas, he served in the US Navy and went on to graduate from San Diego State University in 1980, with a degree in History and a minor in Classics.
He attended Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and upon graduation in 1984, was called to serve as Associate Pastor at Zion Lutheran Church of Stockton. A year later he was called to serve as the Senior Pastor of Zion, and served that ministry until the fall of 2004. He was then called to serve as Pastor of Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, Davis, California, in September of 2004. Mark has been active in social justice and community organizing and in ecumenical and interfaith endeavors, including “Celebration of Abraham” events in both San Joaquin and Yolo counties. Bp. Mark was installed as the fourth bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod on July 12, 2008.
Married to Debbi -- who serves as the principal of Lincoln High School in Stockton -- for 22 years, they have a blended family of four adult children: Alyssa, 30, Marshall, 28, Justin, 28, and Meaghann, 25. Mark’s interests include astronomy, several injury-plagued stints on church softball teams, canning award-winning pickles (the ribbons may be seen in his office) and the ongoing (and seemingly endless) restoration of a 1966 Mustang. Mark was born September 2, 1956 in Pomona, California, the third of four children born to Hal and Eleanor Holmerud. Mark is an eighth-generation native Californian, tracing his family’s history to early Hispanic settlers of the eighteenth century. He grew up in Solana Beach, a town located on the Pacific Ocean twenty miles north of San Diego. After graduating from San Dieguito High School in Encinitas, he served in the US Navy and went on to graduate from San Diego State University in 1980, with a degree in History and a minor in Classics.
He attended Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and upon graduation in 1984, was called to serve as Associate Pastor at Zion Lutheran Church of Stockton. A year later he was called to serve as the Senior Pastor of Zion, and served that ministry until the fall of 2004. He was then called to serve as Pastor of Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, Davis, California, in September of 2004. Mark has been active in social justice and community organizing and in ecumenical and interfaith endeavors, including “Celebration of Abraham” events in both San Joaquin and Yolo counties. Bp. Mark was installed as the fourth bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod on July 12, 2008.
Married to Debbi -- who serves as the principal of Lincoln High School in Stockton -- for 22 years, they have a blended family of four adult children: Alyssa, 30, Marshall, 28, Justin, 28, and Meaghann, 25. Mark’s interests include astronomy, several injury-plagued stints on church softball teams, canning award-winning pickles (the ribbons may be seen in his office) and the ongoing (and seemingly endless) restoration of a 1966 Mustang.
Nancy Feniuk Nelson was born in Chicago and raised in a near-by suburb. She attended Augustana College, Rock Island, majoring in psychology and religion and received her degree in 1975. She then attended LSTC (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago), received her M.Div. in 1979, and was ordained at the synod convention that May. 