Rev. Dr. D. Mark Wilson
Biography
Rev. Dr. Doniel Mark Wilson was born the youngest of six children on
September 27, 1960, to the proud parentage of a single mother, from whom he
learned strong faith in God to dream beyond life’s apparent limitations. He
received his early education in his native hometown, Oakland, California, and
was graduated from Skyline High School in 1978. Wilson then attended and was
graduated Magna Cum Laude from Howard University, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy
with a minor in German. While at Howard, he became fluent in German and received
a Certificate of Study from the Goethe Institute in Mannheim, Germany. He earned
a Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1985, and
a Ph.D. in Sociology, from the University of Michigan in 2000. Dr. Wilson is a
researcher on topics of religion and social inequality, has conducted
multicultural workshops on racism, sexism and homophobia at the University of
Michigan, with the American Baptist Churches, USA, and at the 1995 “Kirchentag”
(a German international church gathering where some 120,000 Christians came to
dialogue on topics of social justice) held in Hamburg, Germany, where he
presented a paper on racial justice and social inequality.
Rev. Wilson was ordained as a clergyperson in February 1987, under the
dynamic ministry of his mentor Rev. Dr. Charles G. Adams and the Hartford
Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. During his seven-year tenure as
Assistant to the Pastor in Youth and Neighborhood Ministries at Hartford, Rev.
Wilson’s love for youth and vision of ministry was nourished and greatly
inspired. This love and vision has continued to blossom in his current pastorate
of McGee Avenue Baptist Church, in Berkeley, California. As pastor of this
historic African American congregation, Rev. Wilson’s ministry has centered on
the spiritual growth of his members and his passion for social justice in the
public arena. Under his leadership the church received its first grant from the
City of Berkeley to expand their Food Program and HIV/AIDS Ministry, developed
Prison, Domestic Violence, and Recovery Ministries, and worked with the City of
Berkeley to build youth programs. Under his leadership, the church also
developed a Community Development Corporation, to purchase and redeveloped
property to house to house the church’s social action programs. In response to
his love for them, the church showed their love in return by embracing him when
he was “outed” as a gay man in a local newspaper in 1998. He is considered to be
one of the first African American gay men and pastors ever to be “out” in a
traditional African American Baptist church. With bittersweet sorrow, Dr. Wilson
departed this ministry after eleven-and-a-half years of service, to become the
Assistant Professor of Congregational Leadership at the Pacific School of
Religion, in Berkeley, California.
Dr. Wilson has been a participant in several international religious
delegations: in Havana, Cuba, in 1985 and Managua, Nicaragua, in 1989; sharing
cultural dialogue; his gifts in music, liturgy and preaching; and building
global justice and political solidarity with the many of the world’s poor and
oppressed. He has served as Northern California Regional Convener of the
American Baptist Black Caucus, Chair of the Political Action Committee of the
Progressive Baptist State Convention, a board member for the American Baptists
Concerned Caucus for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People, a past Board Co-President
of the AIDS Project of the East Bay, the President of the HIV/AIDS Interfaith
Coalition of the East Bay, a member of the State of California HIV/AIDS
Prevention Community Planning Advisory Group, a member of the Berkeley Mayor’s
Community Advisory Committee and HIV/AIDS Housing Commission, a board member of
the Center for the Common Good, and the California Council of Church’s Impact
Board. He has held adjunct faculty positions at Dominican University, Saint
Mary’s College (Moraga), and the American Baptist Seminary of the West. He
currently serves as a board member with the Berkeley/Albany YMCA, the
Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and is a Lecturer in the
Sociology Department at the University of California at Berkeley.
His honors and awards include Phi Beta Kappa, Howard University, 1981 ;
German Academic Foreign Exchange Scholarship, 1981; Who's Who Among American
University and College Students, 1982; Mr. Howard University, 1981; Lucy E.
Moten Scholarship, 1981, William Stuart Nelson Scholarship, 1982; Delta Phi
Alpha (German Honor Society), 1981; Eta Sigma Phi (Classics Honor Society),
1981; Benjamin E. Mays Fellowship, 1983-1985; Edward Hopkins Shareholder,
Harvard Divinity School, 1984 ; J.H. Jackson Scholarship, 1984; Billings
Preaching Prize, Harvard Divinity School, 1984; Outstanding Young Men of
America, 1985; CIC Minority Scholarship, 1988-1990; Michigan Minority Merit
Scholarship, University of Michigan, 1990-2000. He is the son of Mrs. Bettie
Cheeks-Austin, the proud great-uncle of 25 nieces and nephews, the adopted
father of some 200 children whom he inherited from his youth ministry in
Detroit, and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
(This bio statement provided by D. Mark Wilson.)
Biography Date: October, 2005
Tags
Baptist (American Baptist/USA) | Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (formerly American Baptists Concerned) | Black | AIDS | Clergy Activist | California | Oakland
Citation
“Rev. Dr. D. Mark Wilson | Profile”, LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, accessed February 11, 2025, https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/profiles/d-mark-wilson.
Remembrances
“
I was in an advanced German class in high school with Mark and we were both failing the class. I reported to the counselor that the teacher was a Nazi, she was from Germany and the counselor was a southern black woman who interviewed him and myself. I ended up getting a C- and I never discussed with Mark what had happened. We ran into each other at a AIDS walk in Golden Gate Park probably 35 years later on and he told me that that German teacher was a horrible bad teacher and that was it. He's an amazing person who does have a keen sense of humor. Everyone loves Mark Wilson that knows him!
”
– as remembered by Michael Hollander on December 9, 2024
“I came to know Pastor Mark as first a visitor and eventually a member of McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley, California. I will always remember him as funny, warm, immensely talented and remarkably intelligent. Having had a love/hate relationship with church in the past, he helped me discover the liberating love of Jesus the Christ and aided me in deciding to be baptized as an adult. I loved that church and truly loved him. When he was outed by a local paper, I was so impressed by his courage and grace under the pressure of a seemingly overwhelming situation. I currently reside in the Dallas/Fort Worth area where there are mega-churches on every corner, and yet, I haven't found a church or a pastor more inclusive, more committed to love and justice than Pastor Mark. In my heart, he will always be my pastor.”
– as remembered by Cheryl Jackson on May 12, 2012
“Mark, as we call him, was one of the first ministers that I came to know personally. He befriended me, invited me to work with him in the youth ministry at Hartford Memorial and officiated at my wedding. Mark was the first person to put in my head this crazy idea about going to Harvard Divinity School. I thought that he was joking; but, he was serious. I earned an M.Div. and Th.M. degree at Harvard, thanks in no small part to Mark's suggestion, support and encouragement.”
– as remembered by Clarence W. Davis on April 14, 2012
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