Adam Halkett
Adam Halkett is a Cree Anglican bishop in Canada. From 2012 to 2025 he served as the suffragan bishop of Missinippi in the Anglican Diocese of Saskatchewan, with pastoral oversight of Indigenous Anglican communities across northern Saskatchewan.
Early life and education
Halkett was born on a trapline in Swan River, Saskatchewan, and raised in the Red Lake district and on the Montreal Lake [Cree Nation] reserve. His parents, Alice and Isaiah Halkett, were Anglican Christians who ensured their children were baptized and raised in the church.In his youth Halkett lived a traditional Cree life of hunting and fishing, and briefly attended Prince Albert Indian Residential School at age sixteen to improve his English. He later recalled that he did not suffer abuse there, though he witnessed the experiences of others.
Halkett studied for ministry at James Settee College for Ministry in Prince Albert, a diocesan training program for Indigenous clergy and lay leaders.
Ministry before episcopate
After a period of personal struggle with addiction, Halkett recommitted himself to Christianity in 1982. He began serving as a lay reader in his community, a ministry he continued for seventeen years.He was ordained deacon in 1999 and priest in 2000. Following ordination, he served as priest-in-charge of St. Joseph's Anglican Church in Montreal Lake, his home parish. In 2005 he was appointed Archdeacon of Saskatchewan. In this capacity he combined parish ministry with oversight responsibilities and mentorship of other Indigenous clergy.
Bishop of Missinipi
On 28 July 2012 Halkett was elected as the first Diocesan Indigenous Bishop of Saskatchewan at a diocesan assembly held in Prince Albert. He was consecrated later that year as Bishop of Missinippi, a suffragan bishopric created to serve Cree and other Indigenous communities in the northern two-thirds of the province.The election was part of a diocesan vision known as Mamawi isi miywâcimowin, which sought to give greater authority to Indigenous leadership in the church. Halkett succeeded Charles Arthurson, who had served as an Indigenous suffragan bishop from 1989 to 2008.
As Bishop of Missinippi, Halkett had responsibility for more than sixty predominantly Cree parishes. He regularly traveled to remote communities by road, ministering in both Cree and English. His work included pastoral care in contexts of poverty, youth suicide, and community crises, as well as support for training Indigenous clergy and catechists.
On September 25 2025, nine months after his 70th birthday, Halkett was made to retire in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of the Ecclesiastical Province of the Northern Lights, with a nine-month allowance from Diocesan Canons.