History

St. Peter’s was consecrated in 1902, but the story of an English-speaking parish in Château-d’Oex begins decades earlier — in the lounges of Victorian Alpine hotels, where holidaying British families first gathered for Sunday services long before there was a building to gather in.

What follows is a curator’s guide to the parish’s heritage: its founding, its First World War years, and its place in the wider Anglican story of Switzerland.

The story of St. Peter’s

The fullest account is Janet Daenzer’s Heritage 1866–1919, which traces the parish from its hotel-lounge origins to the consecration of the church on 27 May 1902.

Two original documents from that year survive in the archive. The Consecration Certificate was issued by Thomas Edward Wilkinson, Anglican Bishop of North Europe, formally consecrating the new church. His authority to do so came from a letter of commission from Arthur Foley, Bishop of London, dated 10 May 1902 — which appointed Wilkinson to dedicate the building “by the name of St. Peter.”

The First World War

In 1916, Château-d’Oex received hundreds of British prisoners of war who had been exchanged from German camps through neutral Switzerland under a diplomatic agreement that May. Wounded and invalid soldiers were brought to the Swiss Alps to recover, and St. Peter’s became a centre of welcome and pastoral care for them. The parish marked the centenary in 2016, and the story remains one of the most remarkable chapters in the church’s history.

Anniversaries

St. Peter’s celebrated its 120th anniversary on 2 June 2019, in the presence of the Right Reverend Dr. Robert Innes, Anglican Bishop in Europe.

The Anglican story in Switzerland

St. Peter’s was one of many Anglican churches built across Switzerland in the late nineteenth century to serve British residents and visitors. We are gradually assembling an overview of Anglican churches in the Canton of Vaud, and a deeper account of one of our nearest sister congregations — St. John’s, Montreux, founded amid the Romantic afterglow of Byron, the Shelleys, and the early years of Lake Geneva tourism.

Contributing

The archive is being assembled gradually. If you have photographs, documents, or recollections relating to St. Peter’s or the wider Anglican community in the Pays-d’Enhaut that you would be willing to share, please write to info@stpeters.ch.