God’s love transforms us and empowers us to transform the lives of others through service to our neighbors and our world. You are invited to get involved—whether you can give an hour here and there, or make an ongoing commitment—there is a place for you.

St. Peter’s Food Cupboard

St. Peter’s Food Cupboard has provided food for local families in need since 1987. We distribute food (including meats, fresh fruits and vegetables) by an open-choice system, feeding dozens of Philadelphia families each week. Volunteers are needed Saturday mornings and Friday afternoons. Learn more about the Food Cupboard and how you can get involved.

Rainbow Initiative

St. Peter’s has joined 22 other Episcopal congregations in becoming a Rainbow Initiative Congregation. The Rainbow Initiative is a program of Episcopal Migration Ministries that empowers congregations to support LGBTQIA+ migrants. Together, we will bring visibility and aid to those who have fled their countries because of persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and/or sex characteristics. Learn more about the Rainbow Initiative. 

LGBTQ+

As a welcoming church, St. Peter’s is blessed to have gay and lesbian parishioners, staff, and clergy. St. Peter’s is an affirming and inclusive community comprised of the young and the old, married, partnered and single, gay and straight. We represent and celebrate the wonderful diversity of our city and include a place for everyone around God’s table. St. Peter’s clergy is happy to officiate same-sex marriages at the church.

Social Justice Discernment Group

The SJDG actively addresses issues of Social Justice for ourselves and the congregation. We aspire to educate ourselves through research, discussion, speakers and activities, all anchored in a spiritual and supportive relationship to each other. Our second goal is to be the “drumbeat” for the congregation, empowering each person to discern his/her own response to the issue through education and social activities.

Anti-Racism Work

It takes all of us to dismantle racism. St. Peter’s is a community committed to confronting racism in our past, in ourselves, and in our world. Many of the early members of St. Peter’s Church were slaveholders; St. Peter’s Church was built and financed in large part by these early members, whose wealth was directly or indirectly connected to slavery. Learn more about St. Peter’s anti-racism efforts. 

Environmental Justice

St. Peter’s strives to demonstrate care and reverence for all of God’s creation, through leadership, action, and education.  Every fall, St. Peter’s observes a season of Creation. A season in which we remember, reflect on, and celebrate, this marvelous, magical world that God so loves. During our worship services and special events this season, we renew our commitment to caring for all of God’s beloved.  

Gun Violence Awareness

St. Peter’s participates in National Gun Violence Awareness Day, and we wear orange on this day to honor the more than 100 lives cut short and the hundreds more wounded by gun violence every day. We have, in partnership with Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence, installed a Memorial to the Lost in the churchyard  to honor victims of gun violence and their surviving families. T-shirts with names and dates of those murdered by gun violence in Philadelphia are displayed in front of St. Peter’s Church so that community members can experience in a tangible way the loss of life and disruption of lives that gun violence creates.

Episcopal Community Services

Episcopal Community Services (ECS) is a Philadelphia-based social service agency that empowers vulnerable individuals and families by affirming human dignity and promoting social justice. St. Peter’s participates in several service projects each year with ECS, including a “Fill the Bus” backpack drive for students, a cleaning product collection for a women’s mission, and a Christmas gift drive.

POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild)

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is a member of POWER, an interfaith organization committed to implementing systemic change for the betterment of Pennsylvania communities. POWER works to bring people together across the lines of race, faith, income level, and neighborhood—lines which have historically kept Philadelphians divided. We are people of faith committed to the work of bringing about justice here and now, in our city and our region.