St. Peter's was formed in 1876 to serve German Lutheran immigrants who had moved out to the rural suburb of Pleasant Ridge. The first church was located on the present site. The first name of the congregation was "St. Peter's First German Evangelical Lutheran Church." 

St. Peter's traces its denominational history back to the German Evangelical Church, a Lutheran body formed in the mid-19th century to serve German immigrants. In 1934, the Evangelical Synod (which had dropped "German" in 1929) merged with the German Reformed Church, a Calvinist body formed during the colonial period, likewise to serve German immigrants. They, too, had dropped "German" from their name. The new combined body was named the "Evangelical and Reformed Church." Important American churchmen who belonged to the "E&R" church included the theologians Reinhold Niebuhr and Richard Niebuhr. 

At this same time, in the decade following World War I, German-speaking churches across the United States began dropping German as the language of worship, preaching, and instruction. St. Peter's worshipped in German until approximately 1924.

In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the Congregational Christian Church--itself a merger of churches of English background that included the New England Congregationalists, descendants of the Puritans. The new denomination was, and still is, the United Church of Christ.

Shortly after the turn of the millennium, St. Peter's was approached by The Whole Life Church of Jesus Christ, an independent African-American congregation founded by Bishop Solomon Brown and pastored by Bishop Leonard Williams. Bishop Williams passed away unexpectedly in 200X, and was succeeded as pastor by his sister, Rev. Cordelia "Dee" Nowell. The church needed a place to worship, and St. Peter's agreed to rent the space in the late morning and early afternoon.

Around the same time, the Pleasant Ridge United Methodist Church was being closed by the denomination, leaving about two dozen members without a church. Rev. Mendle Adams, St. Peter's pastor at the time, welcomed the group to join St. Peter's, and a number of members did.

Rev. Adams also entered discussions with the Whole Life Church about a full merger with St. Peter's. This merger was accomplished in 2006. 

The United Church of Christ as a denomination has a long history of uniting disparate church traditions: "United and Uniting," we often say.  St. Peter's is proud to continue that tradition locally, having united a German-background UCC church, a United Methodist church, and an African-American Pentecostal church. Influences from all these traditions can be witnessed in our worship today.

Into this mix the church appointed Patrick Nugent as minister in 2009. Patrick, a Quaker, had previously served a UCC congregation as a student minister, and had worked for two years at Chicago Theological Seminary, a UCC institution. The congregation is proud of all its lines of heritage, and looks forward to the "united and uniting" future God has in store. Our prayer is the prayer Bishop Williams so often lifted up to our attention, the prayer of Jesus for his disciples: "That they may all be one."