[1] Richards was ordained deacon on April 7, 1945, at St Luke's Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Bishop Frank W. Sterrett of Bethlehem.
[2] On July 6, 1945, he was transferred to the Missionary District of Canal Zone and was ordained priest there in October of the same year by Bishop Reginald Heber Gooden of Central America and Panama.
During this time he served as priest-in-charge of the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Cristóbal, Colón, in present-day Panama.
In 1948, he returned to the United States and became assistant at St George's Church in Schenectady, New York.
He remained in Albany until 1957, when that September he was elected as Bishop of the Missionary District of Central America.