St. Peter’s Beloved Father Mark returns home

The day Father Mark Harris returned home after cancer treatment also happened to be the day of the presidential inauguration.

With signs and posters in hand on Jan. 20, members of St. Peter's Episcopal Church waited on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal bridge for his return. Passersby, not reading the signs, assumed it was a political protest. Several motorists rolled down their windows and shouted out their support for the new president, and others stopped to ask what the “protest” was about.

The Rev. Jeff Ross, rector and pastor of St. Peter's, had the best answer of the day. “We are protesting cancer,” he said.

Father Mark, who joined the church in 2003, had been at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston for the past three months.

Church member Pat Okoniewski helped organize the event. “Father Mark is beloved by hundreds,” she said. “For his return we wanted him to know how much we all struggled with him through chemotherapy and radiation, and we want him to see the love and support he generates in people.”