The Rev. Mark MacDonald, vicar of two small congregations in the Diocese of Minnesota, was elected seventh Bishop of Alaska May 3 during diocesan convention in Fairbanks. Fr. MacDonald, 43, was elected on the second ballot.

Following the voting, Fr. MacDonald was contacted by telephone, and he accepted the election. "My prayers are with all of you," he said. "Please continue to pray for me."

The Rt. Rev. Donald P. Hart, former Bishop of Hawaii, and the Rev. J. Michael Garrison, a regional vicar in the Diocese of Nevada, were the other nominees.

The bishop-elect is a native of Duluth, Minn. Following education in Canada, he was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood in 1979 in Minnesota, and became chaplain at St. Luke's Hospital, Duluth, as well as assistant at St. Paul's Church, Duluth. In 1981, he became vicar of St. Mary's, Tomah, and St. John's, Mauston, Wis., remaining until 1984. He was rector of St. Stephen's, Portland, Ore., 1984-89, regional vicar and vicar of Good Shepherd, Fort Defiance, Ariz., 1989-93, and became vicar of St. Antipas, Redby, and St. John-in-the-Wilderness, Red Lake, Minn., in 1993. In Minnesota, he is also coordinator of the committee on Indian work.

He and his wife, Virginia, are the parents of two children.