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The Rural Workers Fellowship (RWF) was first organized in 1924 in Madison, Wisconsin at the National Episcopal Conference of Rural Workers, with which many of its leadership maintained a long relationship. The Fellowship’s founding bylaws stated its purpose as: (1) to promote the interest of the whole ministry to the Church in rural communities; (2) to increase the fellowship among those interested in such services; and (3) to aid the National Council in its service to the rural and field workers. While maintaining its operational independence, the RWF was very closely aligned through mission and personal relationships to The Episcopal Church’s National Council.

For many years the Department of Christian Social Service’s Division of Rural Work led the effort to support rural ministry and provided a subsidy to the RWF to that end. In 1934, the Division of Rural Work was abolished and the Department of Christian Social Service continued the work of rural church promotion as best it could.

In 1941, there was revival of the RWF in the life of the national body as the National Council reorganized and rural work became a part of the Department of Domestic Missions. In 1946, the Fellowship was incorporated and in 1947, a new constitution and bylaws were adopted. In 2005, the Rural Workers Fellowship was renamed the Rural Ministries Network. The RMN appears in The Episcopal Church Annual in 2017, however, by 2019 it was no longer listed.

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.

Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. was born in Wilmington, North Carolina on March 14, 1913. He received his B.A. in 1932, and his M.A. in 1933, both from the University of South Carolina. In 1937 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and in 1941 his B.D. from the Berkeley Divinity School. Shepherd was ordained deacon on March 5, 1941, and priest on September 17, 1941.

From 1937 until 1940, Shepherd was an instructor at the University of Chicago, and from 1940 until 1954, he was professor of church history at the Episcopal Theological School (ETS). While at ETS, he served as an assistant at St. John's Church, Roxbury, Massachusetts. He frequently taught at the Graduate School of Theology of the University of the South, serving as director from 1952 until 1970.

From 1954 until 1981, when he retired, Shepherd was professor of liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. He was president of the American Church History Society in 1949, and president of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church from 1961 until 1974. Shepherd served on numerous worship and ecumenical boards and commissions, most notably the Standing Liturgical Commission from 1947 until 1976. Of his many publications, The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary (1950) is one of the most important. He was a major architect of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

Though he was born and raised in a racially segregated Southern state, Shepherd’s courtly manners and general humility in demeanor led him to demonstrate equanimity to all. Shepherd’s scholarship was recognized by his peers especially in the area of liturgics. His influence was wide owing to a prolific writing and speaking life. He preached at numerous congregations, diocesan conventions, clergy conferences, ordinations, and in the chapels of the seminaries where he taught. He wrote more than 80 books, innumerable chapters and articles, and published a great many prayers. He was one of the few American members of Christian churches to be invited to observe the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s.

Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. died in Sacramento, California on February 19, 1990, at the age of 76. His ashes were interred on Signal Mountain, Tennessee beside his beloved wife Gaby.

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.