Who are we?
Introduction
We are a congregation of the Church of Scotland who are dedicated and enthusiastic about the part we play in bringing God's message of love to our parish. We pray for the Holy Spirit to open hearts and minds to the wonderful God whom we worship and that through the preaching of God's Word and in providing a witness of the love of Jesus Christ in our community we can truly represent Christ (though we are the first to admit we are not perfect!).
Central to our church family life is our act of Worship on a Sunday morning in which we praise God, learn together and bring our prayers. Worship is relaxed and uses a wide variety of styles of music and teaching to enhance our time together. We always strive to make people feel welcome at our services.
There are three Church of Scotland congregations in Blantyre (the others being Blantyre Old Parish Church and Livingstone Memorial Parish Church). There are also Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational, and other denominations in the town. We work together with joint services at different times of the year.
You will find out more about the convoluted history of St Andrew's and the reason for our relatively modern building in the History pages. You can also find details of our church leadership team under St Andrew's Leadership.
Perhaps most importantly, we are people just like you who have made a commitment to Jesus Christ and who are seeking, with God's help, to live out that commitment. We look forward to welcoming others into faith in Christ and into his church and ministry.
The Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian church, meaning that it is governed in a semi-democratic way where each church has a Kirk Session made up of elders, representatives of which make up each Presbytery (covering a geographical area) and the General Assembly which meets once a year for a week to discuss wider issues.
We operate using parishes, which means that each church has a responsibility for the people within its area. It is an immense challenge (no one said being a disciple of Christ was easy), but also a good opportunity to bring God's love to people in many different situations from the workplace to the hospital bedside.
Being a member of a large denomination means that we, as a church, are able to participate in a great deal of work that would be beyond our scope as a single congregation: running nursing homes, providing training resources, supporting churches in financial difficulties, and so on.
Find out more about the Church of Scotland from their web site.