About Bishop Richards

On September 25, 2021, Daniel Paul Richards was elected to serve as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina. He was elected while rector of Christ Church of the Ascension, parish and day school, in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and chaplain of the Phoenix Fire Department. He is an experienced minister of the gospel and leader in the church. Daniel is married to Amy Rose Richards of West Bloomfield, Michigan, and they have three children, Rachel, Jolie, and Henri.

Daniel was born in Cleveland, Mississippi, and grew up in Mississippi and Tennessee before moving with his family to Phoenix, Arizona, in high school. He graduated summa cum laude from Grand Canyon University in 1994 with a bachelor of arts in Creative Arts in Worship: Speech and Performance, a ministry degree. He was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister by the First Baptist Church of Buckeye, Arizona, February 2, 1996.

Daniel left the Southern Baptist Church soon after and was hired by the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona as the youth and young adult coordinator for the diocese in 1997, the same year he was confirmed as an Episcopalian. He attended the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, and graduated in 2003. He was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons on May 25, 2003, and to the Order of Priests on December 3rd of the same year.

He served at Saint Michael and All Angels, Tucson, Arizona as curate before serving as curate of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Phoenix for four years. During this time, he served on the Commission on Ministry for the Diocese of Arizona and served annually as the spiritual director for high school at Chapel Rock Camp and Conference Center.

Daniel accepted a call to Grace Episcopal Church in Traverse City, Michigan in 2009 and served there until 2015, as both rector of the parish and appointed dean of the Grand Traverse Deanery from 2010 to 2015. He served on the bishop nominating committee for the ninth bishop of Western Michigan and local interdenominational and inter-religious boards. The parish was marked by its long standing commitment to homeless and underserved outreach and its Jubilee Outreach Ministries.

In 2015 Daniel returned to Arizona to serve as rector of Christ Church of the Ascension, Paradise Valley, eventually being elected to lead the East Phoenix Deanery and serving as president of the board of Chapel Rock Camp and Conference Center in Prescott. He volunteered as chaplain for the Phoenix Fire Department from 2018 to 2021. His spiritual life is marked by a commitment to Benedictine discipline and time in the wilderness.