The Feast of St. Andrew, our parish’s patron saint, is observed in the Church worldwide on Nov. 30.

Andrew was a simple fisherman, called by God to do a great thing … to follow Jesus and to tell others about him. Here at St. Andrew’s, we embrace Andrew’s calling as our own, and believe our name reflects our mission of “transforming the world through Christ — one heart at a time.” We are excited to offer our community a new Anglicanism for the 21st century — an Anglicanism that embraces Biblical truth, and proclaims the uniqueness of Jesus the Messiah, the only Son of God who has come to redeem the whole world through the power of his transforming love.

Like his brother Simon Peter, Andrew was a fisherman in Bethsaida in Galilee, in what is now present-day Israel. He was with John the Baptist when John pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” It was then that he began to follow Jesus, and when Jesus asked Andrew what he was seeking, Andrew replied by asking him where he lived. Jesus said, “Come and see.”

Andrew then brought Simon Peter to Jesus, exclaiming, “We have found the Messiah!” The brothers left their nets to follow Jesus, who promised to make them “fishers of men.”

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus^[k] was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter^[l]). The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Tradition speaks of Andrew carrying the Gospel message to Greece and Asia Minor following our Lord’s ascension into heaven. He is said to have been put to death by the Roman authorities on an x-shaped cross, to which he was tied, rather than nailed. 

He is supposed to have been buried in Patras in southern Greece. An x-shaped cross, or saltire, is the symbol for St. Andrew, as are fish and fishing nets. Our parish’s logo cross incorporates this “X” shape. The countries of Russia and Scotland have chosen St. Andrew as their patron.

In the past several years our parish has established a tradition of folks wearing kilts and plaids on the Sunday closest to St. Andrew’s Day in recognition of the importance of St. Andrew’s to the people of Scotland.