Richard Lipka
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard W. Lipka | |
|---|---|
| Bishop Ordinary of the Missionary Diocese of All Saints | |
 Episcopal seal of Bishop Lipka | |
| Church | Anglican Church in North America |
| In office | 2021–2025 |
| Predecessor | William Ilgenfritz |
| Successor | Darryl Fitzwater |
| Previous post(s) |
|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 17 December 1966 by Francis F. Reh |
| Consecration | 4 August 1995 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 22, 1940 |
| Alma mater | Saint Mary’s College Pontifical Gregorian University St. Mary’s Seminary University of Maryland Pontifical North American College |
Richard Walter Lipka (born 1940) is an American Anglican bishop. Lipka served as a Roman Catholic and Episcopal priest before being consecrated in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. He later joined the Anglican Church in North America, where he was 2021 to 2025 bishop ordinary of the Missionary Diocese of All Saints, an Anglo-Catholic diocese. He is a significant figure in the Episcopal charismatic renewal movement and the Anglican realignment.
Lipka was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Adam Lipka and Mary Deptula Lipka. He was raised in the Catholic Church at St. Hedwig's Parish in Wilmington.[1] He graduated from St. Mary's College in Michigan and received an M.A. from St. Mary's Seminary. Lipka also earned an S.T.B. from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.[2] While studying at the Pontifical North American College, Lipka was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1966, then returned to serve as a parish priest in the Diocese of Wilmington.[1]
Move to Anglicanism
In 1971, Lipka was received by Harry Lee Doll as a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.[3] He served as a curate at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, one of the original 30 Episcopal parishes in Maryland.[4] After leaving the Catholic priesthood, Lipka married Susan and they had four children.[2]
From 1972 to 1989, Lipka served as rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in the Hampden area of Baltimore.[5] During this time, he became engaged in the charismatic renewal movement in the Episcopal Church.[2] He also hosted Regeneration, a ministry to same-sex attracted Christians, and served on its board.[6] In 1989, Lipka moved to Hawaii to serve as rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Honolulu. In 1994, Lipka and a majority of St. Mary's members voted to leave the Episcopal Church as part of the then-nascent Anglican realignment and join the two-year-old Charismatic Episcopal Church, which was formed out of the convergence movement blending charismatic and liturgical worship.[5] "Over the last several years," he said at the time, "I and many of the members of St. Mary's [in Honolulu] have felt more and more marginalized and disenfranchised from the mainstream of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. We no longer felt a part of the family."[7]