As a Guild Church St Andrew’s functions during the week, Monday to Friday. Our custom has been to celebrate the Eucharist at lunchtime on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. This caters to the local business and legal community that is around the church. Attendance at these services numbers about 10 people.
Our main weekly service is a Sung Eucharist on Wednesday evenings. This service has an attendance of between 35-50. The congregation comprises working individuals, retired individuals, students and clergy. Many who come are involved with another church on Sundays and they come to St Andrew’s for what it has to offer them during the week. That being said there is a lively and committed group drawn from the entire range of the congregation who assist in the running of the services. However, maintaining the dimension of a ‘place of refreshment’ is very much at the heart of our ministry.
Our various congregations are also drawn from a wide variety of church backgrounds. They all find depth and refreshment at St Andrew’s and the church’s ethos is carefully set to be inclusive and welcoming. The Liturgy is identifiably ‘catholic’ in style and it draws on the full range of resources available in Common Worship. Beyond that, the preaching and teaching and general ‘order’ of the church focuses on addressing issues and questions in an open and inclusive fashion. Great care is taken to avoid divisive and harmful practice.
Richard Chartres, the former Bishop of London, has characterised St Andrew’s as a place where “one can breathe spiritually”.
Particular celebrations take place during the year, most notably May Devotions in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which we observe in conjunction with our neighbours at St Alban, Holborn, and the Feast of Corpus Christi, which we observe with our neighbours at St Dunstan-in-the-West on Fleet Street.
During August it has been our custom to hold bespoke Services of the Word, devised and led by lay members of the congregation.
There is also a wide range of occasional services – carol services for a number of charities and businesses at Christmas, memorial services and institutional services during the rest of the year. This means the church has a considerable and varied liturgical life.