Pike, James Albert (1913–1969)

US Protestant church leader. In 1944 he joined the Protestant Episcopal Church of America. He was ordained in 1947. Pike was rector of Christ Church in Poughkeepsie, New York (1947–49), chairman of the Department of Religion at Columbia University (1949–52), dean of St John's Cathedral in New York City (1952–58), and bishop of California from 1958. His books include A Time for Christian Candor (1963) and The Other Side (1968).

Pike was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and was educated at Hollywood High School, the University of California, and Yale University. He originally studied to be a Roman Catholic priest, then turned to the law, and became a member of the California bar and the bar of the US Supreme Court. A leader of progressive thought in the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, Pike was a controversial figure. He was at one time accused of heresy. After his son's suicide in 1966, he became interested in spiritualism. Shortly before his death, which occurred in Israeli-occupied Jordan when his car broke down in the desert, he left the church.