Samuel Dwight Chown (1853-1933) was a Methodist/United minister and administrator. He was born in Kingston, Ontario in 1853. At age twenty-one, Chown was accepted by the Montreal Conference as a probationer for the Methodist ministry. He was ordained in 1879 and served various charges in the Montreal Conference. He developed a reputation for his work in moral reform, especially temperance. In 1894, he moved to the Carlton Street Church in Toronto. In 1902, he was appointed Secretary of the Department of Moral Reform. In 1910, he was elected to serve as General Superintendent. In 1912, he was made principal of Ryerson Theological College in Vancouver. As General Superintendent, Chown brought the Methodist Church into church union in 1925. He retired in 1926 and published The Story of Church Union in Canada in 1930.

Jesse H. Arnup, (1881-1965) was a Methodist and then United Church minister and later the Moderator of the United Church of Canada. He was born in Norfolk County, Ontario in 1881. In 1905, he was received on trial by the Methodist Church in Estevan, Saskatchewan. He graduated from Victoria College in 1909 and received his D.D. from Wesley College, Winnipeg, in 1924. From 1910 to 1912 he was Secretary of the Layman's Missionary Movement of the Methodist Church, Assistant Secretary of Overseas Missions from 1913 to 1925, and Secretary of United Church of Canada Foreign Missions from 1925 to 1952. He served as Moderator from 1944 to 1946.