The Reverend Canon Mark A. Scheneman, Rector

email: mscheneman@stjohnscarlisle.org

Father Mark has served as Rector of Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Carlisle, Pennsylvania since 1986. Prior to coming to the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, he served in three Philadelphia area congregations, including nine years as Rector of Saint Peter’s, Broomall. In 1994 he was inducted as an honorary canon of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Harrisburg.

Canon Scheneman is a graduate of Moravian College, Bethlehem Pennsylvania and holds masters degrees from the General Theological Seminary and Temple University. His Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Ministry degree was granted by the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia where he also served as an adjunct faculty member. His dissertation concerned Destructive Religious Cults and he has lectured widely on the subject for over twenty years. He has also traveled five times to the Holy Land and while on sabbatical in 1995, he served as the Interim Chaplain of Saint George’s College, Jerusalem.

Mark and his wife, Dottie celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary in 2009 and are the parents of three children: Katherine, was married in October 2002 to Jeffrey Whetstone and they reside in Bethlehem, having welcomed their first child, Michael in February 2008; Elisabeth, living in Arlington, Virginia; and Peter living in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Dottie Scheneman taught elementary school in the Carlisle School District until she took a position in 2001 at Dickinson College in Carlisle as Assistant Director of Admissions and Financial Aid.

Fr. Mark has had extensive experience in diocesan ministries. In the Diocese of Pennsylvania he served as the chair of the Program Budget Committee and Dean of the Conestoga Deanery. In Central Pennsylvania he has served on the Standing Committee, the Finance Committee, the New Congregation Startup Committee, and the Commission on Ministry which he has chaired for seven years, the Human Sexuality Commission, and the Partners in Mission Committee which coordinates the Companion Relationship with the Diocese of Sao Paulo. He has also been an Alternate and Deputy to several General Conventions of the Episcopal Church, and served as Legislative Aid to the Evangelism Committee at the General Convention in Columbus, Ohio. He is currently chair of a diocesan planning committee, preparing for the September 2009 visit of the Presiding Bishop to the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania.

St. John’s Carlisle was designated by the Executive Council as a Jubilee Center in 1990 and Canon Scheneman represented Central Pennsylvania for six years as Jubilee Ministry Officer. He was the Co-Chair of the centennial commission of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. An Associate of the Order of the Holy Cross, he has been a frequent retreat and seminar leader.

His many community interests and involvements include the Red Cross, Rotary International, numerous charitable boards, and coaching baseball, soccer and swimming. He has led a team of bicycle riders in ten Multiple Sclerosis 150 mile Bike Tours and is an avid road bicyclist.

He is interested in several hobbies, including fly fishing, bicycling, and sailing. He is a bagpiper and an 18th century reenacter with the Royal Highland Regiment, the “Black Watch”, serving as both regimental piper and parson. His interest in “things Celtic” extends to Celtic music, spirituality, and several trips to Scotland and Ireland. His sabbatical in the summer of 2001 included the Celtic Studies Seminar at Durham University in England and leading another pilgrimage to Ireland. He participated in an archeological dig in Scotland in the summer of 2004 with students from the Classics Department at Dickinson College. Representing the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, he traveled in August 2005 to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to attend their diocesan convention.