In February, 1877, weary no doubt of making the hour-and-a-half trek by horse car on Sunday mornings to the nearest church in Oakland, Episcopalians on the faculty of the young University of California and in the community of Berkeley rented a room in a cottage near the campus, installed a small organ, and held the first service of what was to become St. Mark's parish. They had consulted with William Ingraham Kip, first bishop of California, who had encouraged them to found a mission church. They called it the Bishop Berkeley Mission, in honor of the eighteenth-century Irish divine after whom the town had been named.

Before the next year was half over, the mission congregation, led during the first few weeks by Dr. J. T. Wheat, a visiting clergyman, had become a parish. A building costing $1200 had been erected at the corner of Bancroft Way and Ellsworth Street and had been consecrated as St. Mark's by Bishop Kip. Four years after its founding in 1881, when the first rector, G. W. Mayer, resigned, there were 100 communicants. During the tenure of the next two rectors—E. L. Greene (also a professor of botany at the university) and G. A. Easton—the parish continued to grow. By the time the Reverend G. E. Swan became rector, in 1895, the church building had been enlarged and relocated towards the east, and there were 263 communicants. Eight years later, there were 550.

Bending all his efforts towards the building of an edifice that would accommodate the fast growing congregation, the Reverend Swan saw the completion of a new St. Mark's—probably the first modern building in the so-called California Mission Style—in February 1902, in time for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first services. Of all the pioneer Berkeley churches, St. Mark's is the only one that has kept its same location throughout all the ensuing years. Swan was also responsible for building the first choir—at that time of men and boys—a symbol of the importance that the ministry of music was to retain in the parish up to the present day.

Following Swan the builder in 1904, the parish enjoyed for the next fifteen years the rectorship of Edward Lambe Parsons, a clergyman of extraordinary intelligence, wide sympathies, and broad vision. Chosen bishop coadjutor in 1919, he became bishop of the diocese five years later, holding the office with distinction until 1941.

His successor was the Reverend W. R. H. Hodgkin, unique amongst St. Mark's rectors in that he had grown up in the parish. Prior to coming back to his home church, he had been vicar of All Souls, like St. Clement's a mission of St. Mark's at the time. His tenure (1919-33) is memorialized by a building named for him, as is his predecessor's by the Parsons Library. The bishop called him to the cathedral in 1933 to be archdeacon of the Diocese of California.

In 1934, the parish called the young and energetic J. Lindsay Patton as rector. He succeeded, through a restoration campaign held over a three-year period, in ridding the church by 1940 of the mortgage burdening it, and for this, says the history written for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding, he will "thankfully and eternally be remembered." The funds raised also provided for the acquisition of a new, larger organ.

Resigning in 1944, the Reverend Patton was followed by the eighth rector, Russell B. Staines. Some long-time parishioners still remember his vigorous leadership, his enthusiasm for work with students, his activity in the parish and in the diocese and the national church. During a difficult interim period at the nearby Church Divinity School of the Pacific, he became Acting Dean.

Two momentous events marked 1952 for the parish: one was the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding; the other, less happy, was the departure of the Reverend Staines. But he left behind him a newly refurbished church, with fresh paint, new pews, new kneelers, new windows—and a young and active congregation. This was inherited by Walter Williams, a forceful and dynamic preacher, who came to the parish after having worked for some years in the Department of Christian Education of the National Church. It is, then, fitting that his nine years at St. Mark's be remembered in the Sunday School building that bears his name, and for which he had energetically planned.

Another priest whose thoughtful and provocative sermons were much appreciated followed Williams in 1962. This was George F. Tittmann, who served for fifteen years, throughout the social turmoil of Berkeley in the sixties and seventies. With a keen interest in foreign missions, he encouraged parish concern for the wide issues of Christianity throughout the world. It is entirely fitting that the splendid modern altar in our chancel be dedicated to him.

Following his tragic death, St. Mark's called Philip A. Getchell, who had been a missionary in Brazil, to be its rector. Under his wise and compassionate leadership, the parish continued its missionary interests, its hereditary connection with the university community and the student Canterbury Foundation, and the active and committed ministry of its lay people in the church at parochial, diocesan, and national levels.

After thirteen years, the Reverend Getchell left to become dean of the cathedral in San Jose. His successor was the present rector, C. Robbins Clark, the first woman to hold the position. Five years into her tenure, all signs indicate that St. Mark's is, as it has been since the beginning, a parish eager to represent, in its worship and service, the best of the Anglican tradition in a vital relationship with the contemporary world, and thus to be worthy of its place in the lives of its parishioners, as it is devoted to its role in the community, in the diocese, and beyond.