Marc Handley Andrus (born October 20, 1956) is an American bishop of the Episcopal Church (

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

). He is the current and eighth

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of the

Episcopal Diocese of California The Episcopal Diocese of California is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) in Northern California. The founding Episcopal diocese in the state, once encompassing all of Californ ...

. Prior to his election as Bishop of California, Andrus served as a suffragan bishop in the

Episcopal Diocese of Alabama The Episcopal Diocese of Alabama is located in Province IV of the Episcopal Church and serves the state of Alabama with the exception of the extreme southern region, including Mobile, which forms part of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast ...

Life, education and ministry

Andrus was born in 1956 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to Mary Frances and Francis Andrus and was raised in

Kingston, Tennessee Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Roane County, Tennessee, United States. This city is thirty-six miles southwest of Knoxville. It had a population of 5,934 at the 2010 United States census, and is included in the Harriman Micropolit ...

. He received his Bachelor of Science in plant science from the

University of Tennessee, Knoxville The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

in 1979 and a master's degree in social sciences from

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...

in 1982. After receiving his master's degree, Andrus went to work as a regional planner for the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission on Virginia's

Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virginia. ...

. In 1987, Andrus was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from the

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, located at 3737 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Virginia is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the Unit ...

in Alexandria, Virginia. After being ordained deacon on June 20, 1987, he became the senior associate at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and was ordained priest on April 25, 1988. In 1990, Andrus became the chaplain at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, until 1997 when he became rector of Emmanuel Church in Middleburg, Virginia. He remained there until his consecration as bishop suffragan for the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama on February 7, 2002. Andrus was installed in 2006 as Bishop of California, where he oversees a diocese of approximately 24,000 communicants in the Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties and the cities of Los Altos and part of Palo Alto. His leadership has focused on key issues related to peace and justice, including immigration reform, civil rights for LBGTQ+ persons, health care, housing rights, and climate change. Early in his tenure as Bishop of California, Andrus co-chaired a community coalition that paved the way for the rebuilding of St. Luke’s Hospital, San Francisco. His climate advocacy work has taken him to the UN Climate Conferences in Paris (

COP21 The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Conve ...

), Marrakesh ( COP22), Bonn (

COP23 The 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) was an international meeting of political leaders, non-state actors and activists to discuss environmental issues. It was held at UN Campus in Bonn, Germany, during 6–17 November 2 ...

), and Katowice, Poland ( COP24), as well as the Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrations at

Standing Rock The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North Dakota, North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa Lakota, Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate a ...

, North Dakota. Andrus is a member of the We Are Still In Leaders' Circle, a diverse group of ambassadors for American climate action. He also serves on the boards of the Episcopal Impact Fund, the Episcopal School for Deacons, Episcopal Community Services, and the American Bach Soloists, among other organizations. In 2020, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy and religion from the

California Institute of Integral Studies California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private university in San Francisco, California.Otterman, Sharon. "Merging Spirituality and Clinical Psychology at Columbia". ''New York Times'', Aug. 9, 2012Aanstoos, C. Serlin, I., & Greenin ...

. Andrus is married to Sheila Andrus, the former acting director of the Sparkman Center at the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

's School of Public Health. They have two daughters, Chloé and Pilar.

External links

Episcopal Diocese of California official website

"My Spiritual Practice and the Climate Crisis"
''Spiral Magazine'', 2020
"At UN climate conference, Episcopal delegation urges nations to act swiftly and justly"
Episcopal News Service, December 12, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Andrus, Marc Handley 1956 births Episcopal bishops of Alabama Episcopal bishops of California Living people Virginia Theological Seminary alumni People from Oak Ridge, Tennessee People from Kingston, Tennessee

Life, education and ministry

See also

External links