St. Peter's Cathedral

As the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Montana, our worship centers on God's saving grace through the person of Jesus Christ.

Hisotry:  Helena was a raucous gold-mining town when Bishop Daniel Sylvester Tuttle and The Rev. E. N. Goddard held their first Sunday services on August 11, 1867.  Sunday streets were crowded with men and teams.  Auctioneers were selling wares, hurdy-gurdy houses were thronged and more than 100 businesses were open.  Sunday was not the Lord's Day!  It was a day for miners to come to town, stock up on supplies, and relax.

On a subsequent visit, Bishop Tuttle formed a Bishop's committee to create an Episcopal mission in Helena.  He launched this effort by celebrating Holy Eucharist at the courthouse on March 28, 1869.  Later that year, he paid $1,200 for property on which to build a church.  At the intersection of Warren and Grand Streets, a stone church, complete with a bell tower, was soon finished for the price of $12,000.  The original bell and brass altar rail still grace our church today.  You can find a painting of that first building in the stairway at the back of the church.  Holy Eucharist was first celebrated there on October 19, 1879, and the building was consecrated on November 11, 1881.

In 1927, The Rev. Henry Daniels began a capital campaign for a new and larger church.  The present land on Park Ave. was purchased in 1930.  Bishop William F. Faber laid the cornerstone on September 10, 1931.  Harold Whitehouse, who also built Episcopal churches in Missoula, Butte and the Cathedral in Spokane, was the architect.  The cost was $90,000 - a huge sum and an act of faith for the parish during the Great Depression.  Bishop Faber dedicated the new church on Easter, March 27, 1932, and designated it the pro-cathedral of the diocese.  Father Daniels became the first of seven deans of the cathedral (The Very Rev. Charles Wilson, The Very Rev. Raymond Brown, The Very Rev. Jim Reeves, The Very Rev. Arch Hewitt, The Very Rev. Steve Brehe, and our current dean, The Very Rev. Heidi Kinner), until it reverted to parish status in the mid 1990's.  In November, 2004, St. Peter's was once again dedicated the cathedral church of the diocese.  In 1941 the church built a deanery for Dean Wilson and his family, which now serves as the Diocesan offices.  An eduational building was added in 1959 and later named Wilson Hall in honor of Dean Wilson's 26 years of service.

Today, Sundays in Helena are a bit quieter.  St. Peter's has raised up many community leaders over the years which all began with the pioneering men and women of Helena in the latter half of the nineteenth century.  

Helena is the state capitol of Montana.  It is nestled in a beautiful valley surrounded by several mountain ranges, including the Elkhorns, the Little Belts and the Big Belts.  The Missouri River flows on the outskirts of town.