Music has always been an important part of liturgies of the Anglican Communion. Rooted in the great tradition of the English Church, All Saints' Church has a long tradition of providing great church music in San Francisco. The Church is blessed to have a superb mechanical action baroque organ built expressly for the warm environment of All Saints' Episcopal Church. In the Anglo-Catholic tradition music takes on a even greater role than in other Anglican Traditions with its more extensive use of chant and other music to bring alive the traditions that go to beginnings of the Christian Church.

The Rev. Dr. Walter Knowles has been minister of music at All Saints' Church since 2008. Prior to coming to All Saints' he was a director of music at St. Ignatius Church, just across the panhandle of Golden Gate Park. Before beginning his doctoral studies in liturgical history and music at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, he was associate rector for liturgy and music at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore (north Seattle), WA for over twenty years. He has also served as priest in charge of congregations in Alberta, Canada and Washington State.

Fr. Walt studied music history, organ performance, and conducting at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, and University of Toronto. While in Toronto, he was formed as an Anglican musician by singing in the choirs of the Church of St Mary Magdalene (probably the most significant Anglo-catholic parish in Canada). He tries to carry on the traditions of congregational music making which Healey Willan established in that church. As a result of singing in that congregation, he did his theological training at Trinity College in the University of Toronto (another Willan connection) and was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.

The theology and aesthetics of music in the worship life of a congregation is at the center of both his academic and pastoral work. His favorite theologian, St. Augustine (also a priest and musician!) once wrote "singing is for those who love, and the voice of singing is the fervor of sacred love." The most important part of his ministry here at All Saints' is encouraging the wonderful singing (and thus love of God) of both the congregation and those who lead that singing--the All Saints' choir--and he invites all to join in both the larger choir of the congregation as well as the the smaller part of that congregation whose ministry is musical leadership.

In addition to his work at All Saints', Fr. Walt is preparing his dissertation, Numbering Liturgy: an Augustinian Aesthetics of Worship, for publication, and is working on a book on the early history of music in the church with Richard Crocker (whose mass the choir premiered in 2009), as well as a number of other smaller writing projects.

In 1989, All Saints Church completed a revitalization of its unique redwood sanctuary, that one architect called the "place with dancing beams." The capstone of that restoration was the installation of a baroque style organ that fits All Saints' Episcopal Church's unique liturgical setting. Built by M.L. Bigelow & Co., Inc., All Saints' organ is considered one of the best mechanical-action organs in the Bay Area. It's acclaim in the San Francisco Bay Area, has brought the finest musicians in concert. The organ is dedicated to the memory of Rev. Leon P. Harris, Rector of All Saints' from 1949 to 1971. Rev. Harris is one of San Francisco's most colorful historic figures, and it was he that enshrined the Anglo-Catholic tradition for the Church.