St Marks Anglican Church

St Mark’s Anglican Church Pennant Hills is about growing people, about lives filled with the hope, purpose and community that Christ brings. We have a pretty laid back style, but we take the Bible seriously, we care about your questions and issues and we’re passionate about Jesus.

You can watch a brief welcome and introduction from our Pastor Craig Schafer here:

At the heart of our parish life are our Sunday services where we gather as ‘spiritual family’ to listen to our heavenly Father speak in his word and to encourage one another in various ways as we follow Jesus together. Each Sunday gathering has its own style but all of them aim to be focused on Jesus, clear and welcoming.

Our Sunday services are held at the following times:

8.15am

A Prayer Book service for those who are nourished by rich traditions that have stood the test of time.

10am

A contemporary, relaxed, straightforward ‘all ages’ gathering that includes a creche and programs for children and junior teens. Cry room facilities are available.

6.30pm

A contemporary, laid back, no mucking around, ‘let’s learn about Jesus’ kind of a gathering.

There is also Church on Wednesdays at 9.15am each Wednesday for those who find Sunday’s a bit of a struggle. Church on Wednesday features ‘Formal informality’ which involves singing favourite hymns, a simple but traditional format and a cracker morning tea!

The St Mark’s property is located on the corner of Rosemount Ave and Warne St. Pennant Hills:

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Want to know what our building looks like? I’m not sure why you would, but just in case, here is the Google Street View.

Craig Schafer is our pastor. Craig and his wife Julie moved to Pennant Hills in July 2008. They have two little daughters Emma and Zoe. Prior to joining the family at St Mark’s Craig ministered at Springwood – Winmalee Anglican Churches. Craig loves talking to people about Jesus, playing a mediocre game of tennis and watching Iron Chef. He drinks way too much Pepsi Max. You can contact him here.


Rick Hall is our Associate Pastor: Youth & Young Adults. Rick came to St Mark’s in 2010. He is mainly involved at 6.30pm Night Church and our youth groups – Koinonia and YC. He loves playing with his daughters (Elise and Ashley), hanging out with his wife, Helena and drinking good coffee (often all at the same time!). He also loves to play touch footy when he can. Rick is especially excited about seeing people come to know Jesus and have their lives changed by Him.


Jennifer Flower is our Children’s Pastor. She coordinates our Sunday programs for children and some great mid-week programs. Somehow she also manages to bring together HAWK our mega mid-year holiday program that caters for around 200 children. She has a cat. She plays the flute (Jenny, not the cat).



Paul Whiting is our Associate Pastor: Seniors Ministry. He is involved in sharing the good news about Jesus with Seniors, including arranging ministry in local retirement villages. He has a bunch of letters after his name because he used to lecture in Education at Sydney University. He has been married to Jenny for 38 years and has three children and four grandchildren. Paul likes to play the piano and the organ.


Marcus Druitt is our Student Pastor. He is involved in upfront and one-on-one ministry at St Mark’s as part of his training at Moore Theological College. Marcus is married to Helen and they have a young son Milo. They also have a cat named Pedro. In his spare time Marcus enjoys satisfying his inner nerd by playing computer games or watching Lost or 24. He quite likes talking to people about Jesus too.

St Marks is Evangelical and Anglican.

Being evangelical means being committed to the ‘evangel’ – the ‘gospel’ – the ‘great news’ about Jesus. How does that work out in practice?

• The death and resurrection of Jesus are at the heart of our worldview. According to the Bible Jesus died bearing the penalty that we deserve for refusing to trust God as God over us. In the death of Jesus God himself takes on the penalty for our rebellion. He does it to give anyone who will turn to Him with trust a fresh start. We will discuss that reality, we will help others work through their questions about it but we will never let go of it.

• We’re convicted that the Bible is the word of God and so we strive to have our hearts and minds immersed in the things that God says in the Bible and shaped by them.

• We’re committed to sharing the good news. The news of Jesus death and resurrection is great news. We think it is such great, significant and important news that we are committed to sharing it with other people so that they have a chance to start to trust Jesus too.

Being Anglican we value the stand taken by the Anglican reformers of the 16th century and the sacrifices they made. We consider the documents they hammered out (the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles) to be excellent expressions of key Biblical truths.

We regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper and practise baptism and confirmation.