About St. Marks United Methodist

St. Mark’s is an open, inclusive, intergenerational, and progressive community of faith which actively serves San Diego and the world. We subscribe to the mission statement of the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church: “Inspiring the world as passionate followers of Jesus Christ so that all may experience God’s life-giving love.” We come from a wide variety of places and life experiences, and all are always invited, whatever our background or circumstance.

The Sunday morning service at 9:30 a.m. in our cathedral-style sanctuary combines the best aspects of awe-inspiring music and tradition with a very informal approachability. Each week’s sermon gives current relevance and historical context to the Bible and church teachings. We sing favorite old hymns, spirituals, folk, country, praise choruses, and anything else we think will be inspiring or fun! Our congregation has people of all ages and family situations, and is from a wide variety of faith traditions.

United Methodists believe in and practice:

1. The primacy of grace, which is God’s initiating love. It runs ahead of our conscious impulses and is always present.
2. What is traditionally called “holiness,” which means orienting ourselves toward justice, truth, and peace. Holiness is the natural, flowing response to grace.
3. Human worth. The most-essential and central characteristic of all human beings is dignity, which we celebrate and uphold as we practice compassion and reach out with love to all.
4. “Conversion” or “new birth,” which are traditional names for the profound personal experience of the workings of divine grace, whatever that might look like for each of us, whenever it happens, and whether or not it is publicly acknowledged. Each person is unique.
5. Faith and good works belong together and are mutually reinforcing.
6. Acceptance of all persons and the embrace of differences. We acknowledge that different understandings of the divine grow out of very different circumstances, life experiences, and worldviews. We celebrate that by being together and working together we make each other smarter, stronger, more faithful and more loving.

United Methodist belief and practice are based on the sermons of John Wesley, an Anglican priest and reformer who lived in the 1700s. He took his ministry beyond the walls of the church, insisting that the grace of God, the love of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit were real and alive in the lives of the people he met there.

If you’d like to know more, go this link.

If you have questions, click here to email us. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!