About St. Peter’s Del Mar

Built in 1940

We love God, creation, and the whole human family.

Who We Are

Del Mar’s Episcopal Church

St. Peter’s is your Episcopal Church in Del Mar. We value both the wisdom of our 2,000 year old history and the realities of living in the modern world. We believe in living our lives as disciples of the risen Christ, guided by the power of God through the Holy Spirit, and that God’s ultimate, loving design for the world will be fulfilled.

What We Believe

What Kind Of Christians Are We?

to be an open, embracing community
to discover, celebrate, and share the love of Christ
to love God and our neighbors near and far
to worship, pray and serve joyfully in community
to become more Christ-like in living out our baptismal covenant
to bring Christ’s healing love to all

We strive…

in the God whom Christians name the Holy Trinity
that God was fully present in human form in Jesus of Nazareth
that Jesus was raised from the dead after being crucified
that Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection inaugurated a new way of relating to God
that our lives as disciples of the risen Christ are guided by the power of God through the Holy Spirit
that God’s ultimate loving design for the cosmos will be fulfilled
that our core work as Christians is to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as ourselves
that human beings are made in God’s image and are beloved of God
that the bible provides our foundation, interpreted through reason and tradition
that baptism marks a formal entrance into the body of Christ, the church
that the baptismal covenant (the set of promises that one makes during the ceremony of baptism) expresses what it means to follow Christ and live a life of faith
that baptism and the Eucharist are the two sacraments Christ gave the church

We believe…

Our Story

The History of St. Peter’s Del Mar

How It Started

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church began in 1891 with sporadic services throughout the region, led by The Rev. William E. Jacobs. At the time, Del Mar was little more than a developing coastal settlement—windswept, beautiful, and full of possibility. There were no grand sanctuaries or established congregations. There were simply people: families, laborers, dreamers, and missionaries who believed that wherever a community forms, God is already at work.

How It Grew

By 1923, Bishop Bertram Stevens was leading small services in his Del Mar home. Those services continued until 1931 when he appointed The Rev. Gerald C. Gargner as missionary to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. The small congregation moved to a local real estate office before being gifted a patch of land in 1938 on which to build. Today, we’re still on that same piece of land. As our church community has grown, so has our spirit of faithfulness. Every ministry at St. Peter’s is an expression of our original vision—to be an open, embracing community; discovering, celebrating, and sharing the love of Christ.

How It’s Going

More than a century later, we've proclaimed the gospel to thousands, trained hundreds to live out their faith in their lives, supported parents who seek to care for and teach their children, encouraged budding seminarians, and partnered with nonprofits to address the needs of those in Del Mar and the surrounding areas. And having lived through many worldly changes, at our core we remain what we were from the start: a gathering of neighbors by the sea, trusting that God is working within us—and inviting others to come and see.

Our Name

Saint Peter – A Fisher of People

Del Mar is a place people travel to. You come for the beach, the racetrack, and the long golden evenings. What you may not expect is a small redwood church, nestled into the hills – a church named for a working fisherman, a man who smelled of salt and fish and who left a life on the water because Jesus asked him to follow. Saint Peter: a name that represents the calling of this congregation and the place we’ve been sent to serve.

Peter knew the sea. He worked it, feared it, and once walked upon it, until he took his eyes from Christ and began to sink. Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, a reminder that we are upheld not by our own strength but by the grace of the God who lifts us out of the waves. Peter’s name, given to him by Jesus, means “rock,” a sign that ordinary and imperfect people may be made steadfast when set upon the right foundation.

Grounded in the love of God and gathered at the edge of the ocean, we take our name from the one who left his nets to follow. As the people of St. Peter’s, we strive to answer the same call: to worship God in the beauty of holiness, to cast our nets wide in welcome, and to seek and serve Christ in all persons, trusting God to transform the lives of our neighbors in Del Mar and beyond.