St. Peter’s Church
is a small but vibrant parish that offers meaningful worship services which include spiritual, educational, and inspirational preaching with encouragement to think, act, and pray about God’s word during the week. We have a wonderful choir and a talented organist and choir director. Our worship service is frequently attended by a black Labrador retriever! There is also a vibrant Christian education program with bible study being held throughout the year.
Outreach to the community is an important part of our parish life. We have a food collection on the first Sunday of every month for the Rush-Henrietta Area Food Terminal (RHAFT). St. Peter’s is one of the congregations that helped with the founding of RHAFT. Every December a large tree limb is installed in the church and used as the collection point for gloves, mittens, scarves, hats and socks. This event is known as the “Living Giving Tree” and the donations are given to one of several programs that support those in need in our community. We also support Alcoholics Anonymous and other local support groups by providing a place for them to meet throughout the week. Our Social Ministries Committee receives 3% of St. Peter’s operating budget every year to use for supporting a variety of local community programs that serve the Greater Rochester area.
There are many other activities that happen at our church which are meant to both foster a sense of community within the church and welcome and support the community around us. St. Peter’s hosts a monthly community breakfast. Coffee hours, lunches, dinners, and tea parties also are held throughout the year. We hold an annual 5K race/walk called “The Running with the Angels”. This race is open to the community and a bountiful lunch follows the race. It serves as a fundraiser for the church and provides scholarships for graduating high school seniors in the parish. There is a yearly worship service and picnic held in memory of a well-beloved parishioner and in celebration of John Deere tractors that serves as a fundraiser for the Buildings and Grounds Committee.
St. Peter’s has a chapter of the national Daughters of the King (DoK). Some of the DoK service projects have included a baby shower for a crisis nursery, a beach collection for a city summer recreation program, collection of children’s bedding for a program that builds beds for children who don’t have one, and a birthday bag collection donated to a local food cupboard for distribution to the community.
Our church building and property also serve many unique and important purposes. We have an established Memorial Garden that is lovingly maintained by members of St. Peter’s. Bricks for the garden are sold and engraved to memorialize loved ones and life events. Members of the Boy Scouts have also helped to care for the garden. The ground floor of our building serves as the offices and headquarters for the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester.
What truly makes St.Peter’s unique are the people whose faith journey have brought them to our church. We are a faithful, caring, and generous congregation that seeks to strengthen the faith of all people we encounter through prayer, study, worship and service.
