Our Mission — What we do

We are an Episcopal church that celebrates and shares the transforming love of Christ.

Our Vision — Where we are going

Our vision is to grow our parish in breadth and depth by strengthening our worship, community, and ministries. Our hope is to deepen the faith of existing members, and attract new people to our parish so that they can experience Christ’s love. We wish to help people recognize their God-given talents and use them to serve God and their neighbor.

Statement of Affirmation

St. Andrew’s Church affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We strive to include all persons without regard to sexual orientation, race, nationality, gender, family configuration, ethnic background, economic circumstances, or difference in ability, culture, or age. Our love and acceptance of each other embody our commitment to unity with God and each other in Christ.

The 1,400 members of St. Andrew’s Church are residents of Wellesley, Natick, Dover, Sherborn, Needham, and other surrounding communities. Our parish is part of the Diocese of Massachusetts comprising 180 congregations in cities and town throughout eastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and the islands. The Right Reverend Alan M. Gates, Diocesan Bishop, and The Right Reverend Gayle Harris, Suffragan Bishop, are our bishops. Our diocese is one of over 100 in the Episcopal Church, which is one of 38 provinces in the 80 million member Anglican Communion worldwide.

From Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon, God’s work is being done in this exciting faith community. Whatever your interests, abilities, needs, or energy level, there is a place at St. Andrew’s to use your God-given gifts. To learn more about any aspect of parish life, please contact a member of the clergy, staff, vestry, or committees.

Our Values — What guides us
  • We are guided by Jesus’ Great Commandment to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We believe we are called to share our faith and the love of God we have experienced in our lives with those outside our church community.
  • We strive to be an open and inclusive church in which all people are welcomed.
  • We believe we are called to nurture future generations in the faith so that they may know Christ’s love.
  • We place a high value on the community life of our church. Through our shared community life we support one another and help each other to experience God’s love.
  • We emphasize the importance of worship in meeting the spiritual needs of our parishioners by offering a range of worship services within the Episcopal tradition.
  • We value the engagement of the intellect in our approach to our faith and are guided by the “three-legged stool” of the Episcopal Church: scripture, tradition, and reason. We strive to be theologically inclusive and value the insights that dialogue between theological opinions brings to our Christian faith.
  • We uphold the importance of putting our faith into action by serving the wider community on a local, national, and international level.

Go to the “Contact” page for directions to the church and information about contacting the parish office.

125th Anniversary Book Cover

Click image to view/download book

Celebrating 125 Years: A Pictorial History, 1894 – 2019

From Sandra Rigney’s Preface to the book

Two years ago (2017) I was invited by our rector, Adrian Robbins-Cole to take on the project of researching and designing a pictorial history book of our parish for our 125th celebration. It has been quite a journey. I have learned so much about our parish in a relatively short period of time. The support I have received has been outstanding, and I have many people to thank.

Katharine Clark spent many hours answering my questions and guiding me in the right direction. Harriet Thompson provided camaraderie and laughter, vital ingredients for any project, while we plowed through the archives.

Peter B. Lull took lovely pictures of obscure and sometimes very fragile items for inclusion here. His support and advice on snippets content for the Sunday bulletins and this book was invaluable.

Patricia Carda wrote the features and introductions, and advised me on all things book-related. We spent many hours reviewing and planning the content and makeup with a lot of laughs along the way.

Finally, Jonathan Vogel-Borne’s superb creative technical expertise and patience translated my design into the pages you see here.

I am most appreciative of the many parishioners who have been kind enough to tell me how much they have enjoyed History from our Archives. Many of these individuals have offered additional information and stories about St. Andrew’s.

I thank you all. I especially thank Laura Brown MacKinnon, Janet Flett, Janet Giele, Pam Henrikson, Pat MacKinnon, Karen Melican, Dot Reed, Paul Shackford, Barbara Shellito, Lynda Sperry, Becky Taylor, and Steve Taylor.

I hope you enjoy this journey through St. Andrew’s past.

Sandra Rigney
November 2019