Father Hughes is a native of Texarkana and was educated in the Texarkana, Arkansas, public schools. He went to Hendrix College in Arkansas and graduated there. He later graduated from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and earned a Master in Divinity degree.

Upon graduation from seminary he enrolled at the University of Chicago and earned an M.A. in Early Christian Literature, and later earned his Ph.D. in New Testament at Northwestern University. He was later a Fulbright scholar and did postdoctoral research at the University of Göttingen in Germany.

Father Hughes was ordained in 1981 in the city of Chicago. While still involved in doctoral research, he served the Church of the Epiphany in Chicago, later serving churches in Iowa and North Carolina part time. After his year in Germany, he served at St. Luke's Church, Germantown, in northwest Philadelphia. He became rector of St. Mark's Church in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He served until he went overseas and taught New Testament for six and a half years in Codrington College in Barbados. Here he was an Appointed Missionary of The Episcopal Church. Since his return from the Caribbean, he has done several interim ministries: including St. John's Church in Decatur, Illinois; the Church of the Holy Cross in Shreveport; and St. Paul's Church in New Orleans. He has taught New Testament in diocesan schools of theology in the Dioceses of Pennsylvania, Central Pennsylvania, Springfield, and Western Louisiana.

In his spare time, Fr. Hughes enjoys listening to music, cooking and watching movies.