Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Mark Clavier was raised in the American Episcopal Church, one of the earliest of the so-called Continuing Anglican churches. He earned his AB at the College of William and Mary in 1993 before attending Duke Divinity School, where his MTS focused on the theology of the Caroline Divines. After graduating from Duke in 1995, Mark served as a priest in Maryland and western North Carolina for nearly 13 years.
In 2008, Mark moved with his family to the United Kingdom so that he could undertake postgraduate studies at the University of Durham. During those studies, Mark was received into the Church of England by Bishop Tom Wright and subsequently served in four former pit villages and as a visiting lecturer in Anglicanism at Cranmer Hall, St. John’s College, Durham.
In 2011, after completing his doctoral dissertation on Augustine and delight under the supervision of Carol Harrison, Mark became priest in charge of three rural, medieval parishes in north Oxfordshire, and he occasionally preached at various Oxford colleges.
In 2013, Mark moved again, this time to Cardiff, Wales to become dean of residential training at St Michael’s College, Llandaff, the training arm of the Church in Wales. Besides overseeing the community life and formation of full-time ordinands, he also taught theology at Cardiff University, specializing in doctrine and Church history. In 2014, he became acting principal of the college and served on the committee tasked with establishing St. Padarn’s, the new provincial training institution for the Church in Wales.
In 2016, he was appointed vice principal of St. Stephen’s House, Oxford, and Charles Marriott Director of Pastoral Studies, as well as an affiliate member of the faculty of theology at the University of Oxford.
He is now the residentiary canon of Brecon Cathedral in mid-Wales, with primary responsibility for pastoral care, community engagement, and formation. Mark is also the founder of Convivium, an initiative to encourage churches to explore ways of connecting their ministry to conserving local natural landscapes and heritage, and promoting local communities.
Mark has published four books: On Consumer Culture, Identity, the Church and the Rhetorics of Delight (Reading Augustine. Bloomsbury), Rescuing the Church from Consumerism (SPCK), Eloquent Wisdom: Rhetoric, Cosmology and Delight in the Theology of Augustine of Hippo (Brepols), and Stewards of God’s Delight: Becoming Priests of the New Creation (Cascade).
When not working, he enjoys walking with his spaniels Cuthbert and Humphrey in the Brecon Beacons, visiting medieval and Roman sites, cooking, or relaxing with his family.
