It is one of the three churches for the Hyllestad parish which is part of the Sunnfjord prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

A stone entrance gate to the churchyard has the date 1228 inscribed on it, which possibly means that is when the first church was built on the site.

[4][3][5] Due to the occupation of Norway by the Germans during World War II, the church was not rebuilt for quite a while.

There was some controversy over where to build the replacement church: on the original location at Øn or in the village of Sørbøvågen.

It was designed by Ole Halvorsen and the lead builder was Ivar Fleten.