Our Episcopal Heritage
St. Mary’s is a parish of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Southwest Florida. As part of the Episcopal Church we are then members of the worldwide Anglican Communion of over 100 million - making it one of the largest Christian communions globally meeting throughout the world. The Anglican communion consist of 42 national independent and autonomous churches. The Archbishop of Canterbury in England serves at its titular leader.
We affirm our faith with these precepts:
1) We believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world.
2) The Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew (Old) and Christian (New) Testaments, as containing all things necessary of salvation, and a being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.
3) We hold to the creeds of the ancient church, The Apostle’s Creed and The Nicene Creed. A creed is a statement of belief and these creeds provide a deep and wide overview of our faith foundation.
4) The two sacraments as ordained by Christ himself - Baptism and the Supper of the Lord - ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of institution, and the elements ordained by Him.
5) The historic episcopate (Office of Bishops), locally adapted in the methods of administration, to the varying degrees of the nations and people called of God into the unity of His Church.
Our History
In 1964 Joseph K. Singletary gave $20,000 to Christ Church in Bradenton to establish a mission. St. Mary’s was about to be born. That year the first organizational meeting was held with Suffragan Bishop William L. Hargrave, Reverend Fred T. Kyle, his Junior Warden, H. C. (Tom) Slaughter, along with thirty-two Episcopal communicants from the Palmetto area (all but two of whom were members of Christ Church). The bishop announced that Mr. and Mrs. Harry Foster of Clearwater had offered to provide the funds to enable the purchase of property on which to build the church. Their only request was that it be named “St. Mary’s”.
On October 17, 1965 the first worship service was held in the basement of the old Palmetto library. Two weeks later the congregation had already grown too large for the library and moved to the Palmetto Women’s Club.
On January 27,1966, the Diocese approved the plan of the newly incorporated St. Mary’s to purchase five acres located on Tenth Street West. Two months after that, Father Charles Fulton was chosen as Vicar, and May 12, 1966, at the Diocesan Convention, St. Mary’s was accepted as an Organized Mission- St. Mary’s was on its way!
The Grand Groundbreaking Ceremony took place on October15, 1966. Almost exactly nine months later the church and rectory were completed. On October 23, 1973 St. Mary’s became a parish at the annual Diocesan convention. The Memorial Garden plans were approved and constructed in 1978 for the internment of cremains of our departed parishioners. Groundbreaking for the new Parish Hall and Church Offices was held on Pentecost Sunday, May 30, 1982.
Our current Priest-in-Charge, The Rev. Fr. Donald Perschall, was called in July 2025. The Rev. Fr. William de la Torre began serving as assistant parish priest and specializes in Latino Ministries was appointed in 2013.