"Sometimes success generates circumstances that feel like failure!" With these words, the Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald, Bishop of Alaska, summarized the past year in his address to the diocesan convention in Fairbanks, Sept. 29-Oct. 2.

Bishop MacDonald recapped last year's commitment to engage the gospel daily and be about the business of being disciples and making disciples. One mark of that commitment was the approval of a faith budget which called for increased giving to meet an increase of nearly $200,000 in costs.

Despite the fact that the diocese had been unable to meet the faith budget in 1999, "we have seen some amazing victories," the bishop told the delegates. "All across the diocese congregations are growing. We are getting calls from folks, who have heard that the diocese is on the move, asking that we come to their communities to hold services."

He continued, "All across the diocese we have large numbers of people who are hungry to be about the mission of the church, who are eager to be involved in something worth giving their lives for, the mission of Jesus - making disciples."

The convention approved a budget of $949,214, which anticipates an income of $745,583 and a faith offering of $203,631.

"The budget committee sees this budget as a move from scarcity to abundance," explained the Rev. Kathleen Wakefield, assistant at St. Brendan's, Juneau. "We want to support the bishop and his vision for the diocese," she said. "His vision is one of the reasons we elected him."

(The Rev. Canon) Luis Uzueta