 Shaw was elected to the episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church and consecrated a bishop (the highest office in the Methodist ministry) by the 1936 General Conference.Shaw was assigned to the New Orleans episcopal area (1936–40), and then to the Baltimore Episcopal Area of the Central Jurisdiction of The Methodist Church (1940–52).As Resident Bishop of the Baltimore Area, he served as the presiding bishop of the Delaware, East Tennessee, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.