At this time St Peter's profile was that of a very restrained high church tradition, established mainly through teaching in sermons.

In 1900, Ernest Selwyn Hughes (vicar 1900-26) stamped the parish with an explicit Anglo-Catholic identity, introducing a High Mass as the main Sunday liturgy along with vestments and incense.

His mild Christian Socialism was developed by his successor, Farnham Edward Maynard (1926–64), who emphasised a sometimes radical message through publications and radio broadcasts.

At his instigation the Brotherhood of St Laurence, then a small religious community, came to work in the Fitzroy part of the parish in 1933 and has developed in different ways to contribute to Melbourne's social conscience.

There is a certain bias in the choir's repertoire towards music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods such as Dufay, Palestrina, Victoria, Byrd, Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Handel and Bach.

The choir also performs many of the Mass settings of Mozart and Haydn, as well as works from the Romantic and modern periods, including those by Schubert, Howells, Fauré, Pärt and Britten.

Contemporary works, including house compositions and commissions from Australian composers such as Terpstra, Pearson and Hodgson, are also in the choir's repertoire.