Richard MacMaster

Richard K. MacMaster is a retired history professor who specialized in Eighteenth Century America. He joined the Episcopal Peace Fellowship over 50 years ago, convinced that "modern warfare is incompatible with the Christian principle of forgiveness and reconciliation," as Bishop Paul Jones said in 1917. Reluctantly, Richard came to agree with Martin Luther King, Jr. that the United States is the principal purveyor of violence in the world today. With his wife Eve, he has long been active in the Fellowship of Reconciliation and in local peace and justice efforts, especially relating to the Middle East.

While teaching at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Richard and Eve became acquainted with the Mennonite Church peace witness and have been nurtured by a long association with Mennonites. 

He spent time in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles" there – from one month to a full academic year, each year – and was a witness to the efforts of his Church of Ireland parish in Belfast in the difficult ministry of reconciliation. During the MacMasters extended years in Central Florida, a Presbyterian friend introduced him to the needs of Florida farm workers and other immigrants. They organized Gainesville's Interfaith Alliance for Immigrant Justice as a coalition of faith communities in 2010. He served as its coordinator from 2012-2025, and during that time Richard also launched an EPF Peace Partner Parish at his congregation, Trinity Episcopal Church in Gainesville. In 2026, the MacMasters moved to Northern Virginia.