Alexander Preston Shaw - Bishop Shaw, The Pastor/Preacher

Bishop Shaw, The Pastor/Preacher

Described by Time Magazine (in its 26 June 1950 issue) as "tall" (6 ft. 3 in.), Bishop Shaw also was well-poised. When he was appointed to Winchester, Virginia, he found the second-floor ceiling of his parsonage too low for him. When he solved this problem by persuading his congregation to rent him another house, while leasing the parsonage "to a much shorter man," newspapers in the Washington and New York areas delightedly picked up the story, causing the Rev. Shaw "a good deal of embarrassment."

Nevertheless, the Rev. Mr. Alexander Preston Shaw was a brilliant Preacher. His specialty was his urgent appeal to youth. Speaking of the Wesley Chapel M.E. Church in Los Angeles, the city's fifth largest, Dr. Shaw said,

My Church was not filled with bald-headed people. We had regularly as many as 200 to 300 youngsters attending services.

Reportedly, he would occasionally bring an outstanding boy or girl into the Pulpit with him, to lecture on how the church could be made even more interesting to young people.