Called to lead

To those in the 500 homes and businesses on his route, he is known as "Chuck," the ever-smiling Hawaiian postal carrier.

To the 500 members of the Scranton Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he is known as Bishop Failing.

Charles Keawe Failing III was recently named the bishop of the Latter-day Saint (LDS) congregation, which meets in South Abington Township and serves the greater Scranton area.

He is one of thousands of LDS bishops around the world who, as lay ministers, are not paid for the approximately 30 hours they commit to their ecclesiastical responsibilities each week.

Bishops and two counselors constitute a bishopric that oversees local Church programs, ministers to members of their congregations, known as wards, and seeks to serve the surrounding community.

Serving as counselors to Bishop Failing in the Scranton Ward bishopric are Dr. Scott D. Rieder, a native of Lackawanna County and a podiatrist with a practice in Taylor, and John H. Mills, maintenance manager at Keystone College and a resident of Clarks Summit.

Bishop Failing succeeds Dr. Kenneth R. Lord, associate dean of the Kania School of Management at The University of Scranton, who served as bishop for the last five years.

Bishop Failing left his native Hawaii in 1973 on a four-year tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force.

He was stationed first in Turkey, where he met and married his wife, Mary Ann, and then in New Mexico.

His next stop was Slippery Rock University where, after having been admitted on probation, he graduated summa cum laude, the highest honor a graduate can receive, with a bachelor of arts in English.

Acquiring a life-long passion for poetry en route to his English degree, Bishop Failing has published what he refers to as a "spattering" of his work in The Awakenings Review, Sharings Journal, Relief, Viet Now, Mulberry Poets and Writers Journal and Alive Now.

His work has often been cited by The Pennsylvania Poetry Society, Inc.

He said most of his favorite poems have not been submitted for publication.

"I'm really not a poet," he asserts. "I'm a lazy novelist, so I try to fit it all into one page."

The Scranton Ward is one of eight Northeastern Pennsylvania congregations that make up the Scranton Stake.

Weekly services are held on Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 505 Griffin Pond Rd., South Abington Township.

For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Church-of-Jesus-Christ-of-Latter-Day-Saints-Scranton-Ward/.