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Lyman Cunningham Ogilby was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1922. After receiving his B.D. from the Episcopal Theological School in 1949, Ogilby became a teacher and chaplain at the Brent School, a position he held until 1952. From 1953 to 1967, he served as a bishop in the Philippines, first as Suffragan Bishop of the Philippines (1953-1957) and then as Missionary Bishop of the Philippines (1957-1967).

In spite of his attachment to the Brent School and to the Philippines, Ogilby saw his true ministry as a missionary bishop, whose calling was, in part, to prepare missionary dioceses of the Church for self-support. In 1967, Ogilby resigned as Bishop of the Philippines in order to give the leadership role to Benito Cabanban, a native Filipino who had served as Suffragan Bishop since 1959. Upon his return to the United States in 1967, Ogilby served as Bishop Coadjutor in South Dakota, which was then still a Missionary District. His address to the diocesan convention in that year shows that he expected to assist briefly and then take over the diocese. In January of 1970 he did briefly became Bishop in-charge of South Dakota upon the retirement of Bishop Conrad Gesner, but he served only long enough to guide the election of a new Bishop Diocesan before resigning in March of 1970. From 1971 to 1973, he served as Assistant Bishop of Pennsylvania, supervising missions and aiding parishes under Bishop Robert DeWitt. He became Bishop Coadjutor in 1973, and upon DeWitt’s resignation in 1974, Ogilby became Bishop of Pennsylvania. He held that position until his retirement in 1987. After retirement, he continued to carry out Episcopal duties in the dioceses of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington DC.

Lyman Cunningham Ogilby died on November 3 1990.

Katharine Putnam was born on September 10, 1889, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Upon completing her studies at the Philadelphia Church Training and Deaconess House in 1917, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society appointed her to the Shanghai District. Putnam arrived in China on August 18, 1917 and taught English at St. Faith’s School and Mahan Boys School in Yangchow. She was set apart as a deaconess on May 23, 1920 and continued teaching until a furlough in 1928.

Upon her return, she was appointed Diocesan Religious Education Director and made supervisor of the women’s work in Shanghai. As part of these duties, Putnam prepared educational religious material, held short-term school appointments at country stations, and helped to train women evangelists. After another furlough in 1934, Putnam returned to St. Faith’s School in Yangchow. From 1937 until 1939, she served as secretary to Bishop Graves. After the Bishop’s retirement Putnam worked in the diocesan office and at St. Elizabeth Hospital until the Japanese placed the missionaries under house arrest in 1942. On February 25, 1943, Katharine Putnam joined other missionaries who had been placed in an internment camp until her release as part of a prisoner exchange on September 20, 1943.

After going back and forth between the United States and China several more times over the next seven years, she returned to the U.S. permanently in 1950 where she worked in various roles within the Church, supporting the training and education of women. After 41 years of service, Katharine Putnam retired from the Episcopal Church in 1958.

One of the formative bishops of the Diocese of Texas, Clinton S. Quin was born September 28, 1883 in Louisville, Kentucky. He studied law at the University of Louisville and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1904.

Quin graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1908 and was ordained to the diaconate and to the priesthood that same year. After serving in five Kentucky churches, he was called in 1917 to the rectorship of Trinity Church in Houston, Texas. A year later he became Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Texas. In 1928, he became the third Bishop of the Diocese of Texas on the death of Bishop Kinsolving. Bishop Quin retired in 1955.

Clinton S. Quin died on Thanksgiving Day in 1956.

Walter Righter was born on October 23, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving in the Army during World War II, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1948 and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from Berkeley Divinity School in 1951. He was ordained in 1951 and served at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, where he led the racial integration of the parish, effectively doubling the size of the congregation. Several years later, he took a call to be rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he was active in interfaith and ecumenical work.

In 1972 he was elected Bishop of the Diocese of Iowa. At his first General Convention, that same year, Righter cast the deciding vote in favor of ordaining women to the priesthood and the episcopate. The resolution was passed in 1976 and in December of that year, he ordained the first woman in Iowa, the Rev. S. Suzanne Peterson. Righter retired as Bishop of Iowa in 1988.

From 1988 to 1991, Righter served as the assistant bishop to John Shelby Spong in the Diocese of Newark. In 1990, at the behest of Bishop Spong, he ordained an openly gay priest, Barry Stopfel. Six years later, just before the statue of limitations expired, ten bishops brought a presentment against Righter, charging him with heresy for violating a doctrine of the church and his own ordination vows. After a short hearing in May 1996, all charges against Righter were dismissed, thus opening the door for partnered gay clergy to be accepted into The Episcopal Church.

Walter C. Righter died in Pittsburgh on September 11, 2011.

Malcolm Riker was born on February 12, 1925, in Austin, Texas. At the age of 18 he enlisted in the Navy and was sent to the South Pacific during World War II. After returning home in February of 1946, he enrolled at the University of Texas, graduating three years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. From there he attended seminary in New York City and Berkeley, California where he graduated in the top of his class in 1951.

Upon being ordained, Riker became the first priest at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in La Marque, TX. During his time in the Galveston area he started several more missions. After moving back to Austin in 1958, he revived St. George’s Episcopal Church and proceeded to initiate or take a leading role in the founding of a series of parishes in the Austin area, including missions established at St. Paul’s of Pflugerville and St. Richard’s of Round Rock during his retirement. While at St. Luke’s on the Lake, Riker presented several of the largest Confirmation classes ever confirmed in the history of the Diocese of Texas. In total, Riker founded eleven Episcopal churches in Texas, all of which are thriving today.

Malcolm Riker died on November 17, 2002.

William Ives Rutter, Jr., was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania on October 12, 1871. After graduating from St. Stephen’s College in Annandale, New York (now Bard College), he returned to Philadelphia and entered into the banking profession before joining an accounting firm in 1901.

A member of St. Mary’s Church, Hamilton Village, Philadelphia, Rutter where served as a lay leader for forty years, first on the vestry and later as warden. Rutter is best known for his contributions to church history and as a manuscript collector. In addition to being a member of the diocesan historical committee and several other local historical associations, such as the Church Club of Philadelphia and the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia, Rutter was a charter member of the Church Historical Society (CHS), where he he served as secretary from its founding on May 17, 1910 until his retirement on January 18, 1951. His collection of autographed letters and other works added significantly to the special collections archives being acquired by the CHS. On June 16, 1947, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Canon Law from Bexley Hall, Kenyon College for his work in church history.

William Ives Rutter died in Philadelphia on May 11, 1952.

William Scarlett was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1883. He began his career in 1911 as dean of Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona, a position he held for eleven years. From 1922 until his election as bishop coadjutor in 1930, he
served as dean of Christ Cathedral in St. Louis. In 1933 he was appointed Bishop of Missouri and became a tireless crusader for social reform, committing the resources of the diocese to helping those left jobless and homeless by the Great Depression. In 1935 the Episcopal City Mission was created to minister to those in the city’s jails. He also revitalized Christian education in the congregations, recognizing that the future of the Church was at stake.

Known as a liberal clergyman, Scarlett championed the idea of church unity and wanted cooperation among all denominations. He was one of the founders of the St. Louis Chapter of the Conference of Christians and Jews and was invited to share ownership of St. Luke’s Hospital with the Presbyterians. As president of the Urban League of St. Louis, he sought to make his community aware of problems in race relations. While on the national board of the Urban League and American Civil Liberties Union, Scarlett advocated for the equal rights of blacks long before the issue was addressed by the institutional church. He retired in 1952 and was succeeded by Bishop Lichtenberger.

William Scarlett died in Castine, Maine on March 28, 1973.

Peter Gray Sears was born in 1866 in Oxford, Mississippi. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Mississippi in 1885, he attended General Theological Seminary and was ordained a deacon in 1887 and a priest in 1890.

In 1889, Sears began serving as the rector of Christ Church in Holly Springs, Mississippi, a position he held for ten years. While there, he reorganized St. Thomas Hall, a military boarding school for boys. He served in different missions in Mississippi until 1905, when he became the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. He held the Christ Church rectorship until his resignation in 1926, after which he accepted an appointment as rector emeritus. He then became the first rector of Palmer Memorial Chapel in 1929, remaining there until his retirement in 1936.

Peter Gray Sears died on January 26, 1942.

Samuel Moor Shoemaker was born on December 27, 1893, to a wealthy Episcopalian family with deep roots in Maryland high society. He attended Princeton University where he was involved with the Philadelphian Society that shaped much of his early ministry. After graduation, he moved to Beijing to teach and do missionary work. While there Shoemaker met Frank N. D. Buchman, a Pietist Lutheran preacher and activist who would go on to found the Oxford Group that evolved into the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement.

Shoemaker was ordained to the diaconate in 1920 and to the priesthood in 1921. In 1925 he accepted a call to serve as rector of Calvary Church, New York City.

In 1926, Shoemaker began hosting weekly evening meetings geared toward training working people to witness their faith and convert others in their workplaces. He traveled the country in 1932, sermonizing to combat what he saw as the spiritual decay brought on by the Great Depression. His establishment of a rescue mission on New York City’s Lower East Side led him to minister to men struggling with addiction, including William Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Shoemaker continued to pursue those ministries at Calvary Church in Pittsburgh, where he became rector in 1952. He also sought to win converts through his writing. He published frequently in the parish newsletter The Calvary Evangel and later independently as the renamed magazine Faith at Work. Failing health forced Shoemaker to resign from active ministry in 1962.

Samuel Moor Shoemaker died in Baltimore on October 30, 1963.

John Shelby Spong was born June 16, 1931 in Charlotte, North Carolina. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill he earned a Master of Divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1955. He was ordained a deacon and a priest that year.

For two years, Spong served as rector at St. Joseph’s Church in Durham, North Carolina, before assuming the rectorship of Cavalry Church in Tarboro, North Carolina, in 1957. In a city that resisted integration, Spong ministered to the Black congregation at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church alongside the white congregation at Cavalry. He continued service as a rector at St. John’s Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, (1965) and St. Paul’s Church in Richmond, Virginia (1969) before being consecrated Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark in 1976. As bishop he continued to work tirelessly on behalf of those marginalized in the Church, ordaining a non-celibate gay deacon to the priesthood in 1989 and advocating for women clergy. Spong gained recognition among lay audiences for his many books on theology, which often challenged conventional doctrine. After retiring as bishop in 2000, he continued to speak on faith, modernity, and social justice.

John Shelby Spong died on September 12, 2021.

Henri Alexandre Stines was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on October 29, 1923. He completed his theological training at Seminaire Theologique, the Episcopal seminary in Port-au-Prince, and was ordained in Haiti as a deacon in 1945 and a priest in 1947. The following year, Stines received his Master of Divinity from General Theological Seminary.

After immigrating to the United States in 1950, Stines first served as vicar at St. James Episcopal Church in Charleston, West Virginia. In 1953 Stines began a long career of revitalizing struggling churches when he assumed leadership of Grace Episcopal Church, Detroit, Michigan. Under eleven years of his stewardship, Grace Church grew from fewer than 100 members to over 1200, making it one of the most active multiracial Episcopal churches in Detroit.

After a stint as Director of Southern Field Service for the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Race Unity (1964-1966), during which time he led protests against segregation and coordinated Southern congregations involved in justice ministry, Stines returned to direct ministry by accepting a position at the Church of the Atonement in Washington, D.C. In 1969, he moved to All Souls Episcopal Church in Berkeley, California, broadening its membership to the entire Bay area and offering educational programs attuned to social concerns of the community. Stines returned to Chicago in 1972, this time to Trinity Episcopal Church, growing it from fewer than 25 members in 1972 to more than 225 members by 1984 with a committed vestry, innovative liturgies in French and Spanish, and special ministries to the elderly and homebound. Stines retired from parish ministry in 1986, although he continued to serve as an interim priest in Chicago and New Jersey until 1990.

Henri Alexandre Stines died on March 8, 1995.

The Rt. Rev. Joseph Cruikshank Talbot was born in Alexandria, Virginia on September 5, 1816. In 1841 he began his course of preparation for Holy Orders and was ordained to the diaconate on September 5, 1846 and to the priesthood on September 6, 1848.

He moved to Indiana in 1853 and became rector of Christ Church, Indianapolis, where he served for seven years. In 1859, he was elected by General Convention to serve as Missionary Bishop of the North West and was consecrated the following year. The Missionary District of the North West covered nearly nine hundred thousand square miles and included Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Montana, and Idaho.

In 1865, Talbot was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Indiana, serving for five years before becoming diocesan bishop in 1872 after the death of Bishop George Uphold.

Bishop Talbot died in Indianapolis on January 15, 1883.

The Rt. Rev. Andrew Y.Y. Tsu was Bishop of the Missionary District of Yung-Kwei in Southwest China and General Executive Secretary of the Holy Catholic Church in China from 1940 to 1950. He presided over the Church in China during tumultuous times, including the Sino-Japanese War and the Communist Revolution, which ultimately forced him out of office. He retired to the United States and the Diocese of Delaware in 1950.

Andrew Y. Y. Tsu died in 1986 at the age of 100.

Helen Brogden Turnbull was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 23, 1907. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland in 1929 and completed her graduate studies at Teachers College of Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary, and Windham House.

After earning her master’s degree in Religious Education, she accepted a position as the Executive Secretary of College Work for the Episcopal Church in the Province of New England. In 1944, she became the director of Windham House, the national graduate training center for women of The Episcopal Church. During this time she was also a part-time lecturer in religious education at both Union Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary.

After ten years at Windham House, Turnbull was appointed to the staff of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, serving as associate secretary in the Department on Cooperation of Men and Women in Church and Society. Organizational changes in her department led to her resignation, after which she began working for United Church Women of the National Council of Churches as Director of Leadership and Field Outreach.

A 1966 reorganization led to the separation of United Church Women from the National Council of Churches. Turnbull was named Director of Ecumenical Relations of the renamed body known as Church Women United.

Upon leaving Church Women United in 1969, she worked as the director of the Hannah Harrison School (in association with the YWCA in Washington, D.C.) for three years before retiring in 1973.

Helen Brogden Turnbull died on July 23, 2001 in Towson, Maryland.

Maurice Votaw began his service as a missionary in 1922 after applying for a post at St. John’s University in Shanghai, China. After helping to found the School of Journalism there, he taught journalistic writing, history, principles of journalism and advertising, and copy editing for seventeen years.

In 1939, during the tumultuous years of the Sino-Japanese War, Votaw was asked to become an advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Information in Chungking. A leave of absence from St. John's lengthened into a stay of nine years, as returning to Shanghai was deemed unsafe. After his return in 1948, he was elected Dean of the College of the Arts at St. John's. This appointment lasted only a year, however, as the Communist forces drew nearer to the city, and in 1949, Votaw returned to the United States on what he later recalled as “the last regularly scheduled ship.”

From 1950 until his retirement in 1970, Votaw taught journalism at the University of Missouri. He is remembered as a pioneering figure at the School of Journalism, a graduate who helped to carry “the Missouri Method” to China, and returned to give what he learned in China back to the students of Missouri.

Maurice Votaw died in 1981.