The Rev’d Mark Nestlehutt serves as President & Executive Director of the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI), which has been headquartered in lower Manhattan since the Institute’s founding in 1834 as a mission of the Episcopal Church. SCI is dedicated to mariner well-being, pastoral care, maritime training, navigational and vessel safety, legal advocacy, and global policy for the vital yet often overlooked role of those who work within the maritime industry. Prior to joining SCI, Mark served for 12 years as rector of a maritime parish on the Chesapeake Bay, whose parishioners included bay and river pilots, assist tug captains, and ship’s engineers. During his ordained ministry, Mark has also served parishes in Wellesley and Hingham, Massachusetts,
Chicago, and Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the Board of the National Waterways Foundation, is President of the Life Saving Benevolent Association, and is Board Chair of the International Christian Maritime Association.
Mark graduated from the Episcopal Divinity School with the class of 1997 after having served as a line officer in the U.S. Navy and working in banking and finance. He chose EDS on the recommendation of his rector at Emmanuel Church in Baltimore Maryland, who was a classmate of then President Dean, Dr. Bill Rankin. While at EDS, Mark focused on the Anglican, Global & Ecumenical (AGE) ministry track under Professor Ian Douglas and had two fellowships: the first in Greece, studying the Episcopal Church’s first foreign mission, the Anglican/Episcopal Chaplaincy in Athens; and the second, a SCOM Grant, which included living in a black township in KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa and later working at the Cathedral Foundation in Cape Town.
One of Mark’s fondest memories at EDS was a one-on-one directed reading’s course on Feminist/Womanist Process Theology with Professor Carter Hayward. “What I carry with me the most from my time and experience at EDS is a strong commitment to social justice ministry that informs the lens through which I read sacred scripture, my teaching, my preaching, and my understanding of what it means to live out my baptismal promises. In my current role, I always strive to make sure that SCI’s chaplains, chaplain associates, and other team members are serving the immediate needs of individual seafarers while keeping an eye on the systemic issues that need to be changed to improve their overall well-being.”