St. Peter and St. Mary Episcopal Church was built in 1891 by Cornish silver miners who worked the mines in Leadville, CO and quarried the stone in Castle Rock. It was built to be a neighborhood church and we are committed to continuing that founding ideal today.
Originally St. Peter’s Church, built by Cornish silver miners with hand-quarried stone from Castle Rock, in 1891, St. Peter and St. Mary’s has been faithfully witnessing to God’s love in the Baker neighborhood through prosperous and difficult times. Almost as soon as the original building, the parish hall, was built, the silver market crashed and plans for a large church were scrapped and the congregation began worshiping in the parish hall, which is now what people know as the church.
In 1900, David McKinley Williams became the organist at St. Peter’s Church at the age of 13. He was there until 1908 when he went to Grace Church Chapel in New York and then on to Paris. He wrote several hymn tunes which are in the 1982 Hymnal, including hymns #, 312, 316 and 661.
After a split over the ordination of women, members of St. Mary’s congregation joined St. Peter’s in 1982, creating The Episcopal Church of St. Peter and St. Mary.
The first woman ordained a priest in the Diocese of Colorado, the Reverend Kaye Ryan, served as associate rector at St. Peter and St. Mary from 1989-1992, bringing with her St. Clare’s Inner City Mission, the precursor to St. Clare’s Ministries, which has been thriving at St. Peter and St. Mary’s Church for 30 years.
St. Peter and St. Mary’s Church is an Alleluia church for a broken world. We are proud to be the “stable behind the inn” where everyone is welcome, not matter their status or place in life. It is in the stable behind the inn where Christ was born, and love and hope burst into the world with a baby’s cry and an angel chorus. St. Peter and St. Mary’s has been celebrating and proclaiming God’s love in the Baker neighborhood for 125 years and we plan to continue doing so for at least the next 125 years.
We know about the hurt of the world, and we know that there is pain and suffering, and we have all experienced the transforming power of God’s love in our own lives, and come together to name and celebrate that love and then go forth to proclaim that love to the world in our own lives and in our relationships.C