Welcome
Saint Teresa of Avila is an inclusive and welcoming community – multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-cultural – yet all united in allegiance to Jesus Christ.
Why Saint Teresa of Avila Church?
About
We are a Roman Catholic community, but with a special focus – Saint Teresa of Avila. She is the patron saint of the spiritual life. We embrace her understanding of human development and spiritual development as essential to human living and well-being. And the mystical life as the apex of God’s intention for all of us.
Mission and Values
In her day, Spanish society was highly stratified, and many were excluded from meaningful employment, from being part of the clergy or nuns, or from having any kind of voice. In her reform of the Carmelite Order, she embraced a ‘radical horizontal inclusivity’ welcoming everyone to equal status whether those of indigenous blood, Jewish blood, Moorish blood, or the poor. Today, this is the “mission” of this parish, giving voice and a worshipping home to everyone: trans- or cis-gendered, LGBTQ+, the poor, the immigrant, the lonely; as well as the wealthy, and the privileged. Equal status. Radical horizontal inclusivity. We try to live these words of Saint Teresa; namely, “In this house: all are friends, all are loved, all are helped, all are held dear.” Emphasis on the word “all.”
A Very Short History
Saint Teresa of Avila parish was begun in 1888 in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco, as a blue-collar, and dockworker parish, largely Italian. As the Dogpatch area became more and more industrialized (warehouses, factories, and docks on the Bay) the people started moving up the hill, changing Potrero Hill, just west of Dogpatch, from goat pastures into a residential neighborhood. In 1924 they picked up their Dogpatch church and moved it a half-mile up the hill to where it is today in the middle of Potrero Hill.
Father Peter Sammons
Throughout the 1980s until the 2010s, the parish pastor was Father Peter Sammons, who truly embraced the idea of “radical horizontal inclusivity” along with the Presentation Sisters on the staff. Saint Teresa of Avila Parish became the hub of Catholic Social Action in San Francisco. The street immediately in front of the church is named “Honorary Peter Sammons” Way.
The Carmelites
After Fr Peter’s death, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco asked the Carmelite Order to staff the parish. Already having a great love of Saint Teresa of Avila, this was a perfect fit. For more information about the Carmelites, visit www.carmelites.net