Mark C. Harper assumed pastoral duties on October 1, 2004, with about 450 members and serving as co-pastor with Jim Bowden for the first 11 months, before Jim's retirement. Mark had studied at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, and received his Master of Divinity in 1994 from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ.

Previous church professional experience included a summer in Zaire as a PCUSA Volunteer in Mission, a year as resident volunteer with the Open Door Community in Atlanta, 3 years part-time chaplaincy for a veterans hospital, and 11 years pastoral experience in three churches in PA, with lifelong church participation as the child of a PCUSA pastor.

Mark grew up in Davidson and Raleigh, North Carolina. Mark and Susan and their three children come to Athens from Shaverton, Pennsylvania, where Mark served as Pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Dallas, PA, and as the Protestant Chaplain of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre. Mark was led to study for his Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary. During his seminary years in NJ, Mark was a student chaplain for the NJ State Prison in Trenton, a summer intern pastor at the Westminister Presbyterian Church in Camden, and a full-time pastoral intern at First Presbyterian Church in Ambler.