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Saint Andrew's Presbyterian Church - About Us
Hmm, what’s a Presbyterian?
It’s tough having a name nobody can say let alone spell.
We’re still proud of it though. It comes from a Greek word “presbuteros” which means “elder”. We believe the best way of serving God is democratically. So we elect elders to run our churches (they can be any age over 18: “elder” doesn’t mean “older”). When we need a minister we vote for him/her too. Presbyterians had a democratic form of government 400 years ago – long before democracies appeared in America and Europe.The first Presbyterians appeared in Scotland in the 16th Century. Now we are found everywhere in the world where Scots settled or Scottish missionaries travelled. Some of the largest Presbyterian churches in the world can be found in Africa and South Korea. Saint Andrew’s is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. (Follow links to find out more about Presbyterians and other churches)
Why is our church pink?
Nobody knows, but we like it that way and tourists love to visit us and take pretty pictures home with them.
Many people speak of the “Pink Church” because they can’t get their tongues around “Presbyterian”. We tell people to look for the Pink Church at the corner of Court and Church Streets; across the road from the drive-in bank. It also makes our email address incredibly simple: pinkchurch@logic.bm . The interior is just as prettyas the outside. Why don’t you come and take a look? We’d love to hear from any other pink churches or any other “Saint Andrew’s” in the world. We are in Bermuda, a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Where are you?Why worship with us?
God likes it when we worship – says so in the Bible. We don’t really think that God prefers Presbyterians. After all Jesus said there were a lot of different rooms in his Father’s home. We would like you to worship anywhere. But we would really love it if you joined our worshipping community.In worship we praise God together. Usually we do this by singing songs about God and Jesus. You may have heard them called “hymns”. We like to think that our worship is a blend of traditional and modern elements. We sing hymns to guitar, organ and piano. Some of these songs are “old favourites”. Some of them are only a few years old. Some of them come from other parts of the world where Christians sing songs together. Every Sunday we finish by singing an African “Amen”.
In worship we pray to God together. In some prayers the minister begins and the people finish – we call these “responsive prayers”. Usually we pray in the words Jesus used (Our Father in Heaven). We pray for each other, for the community we live in and for the world. Often we will pray about things that have happened or are happening around us.
In worship we listen to God’s Word together. We learn about what God wants by reading the stories about God and Jesus in the Bible. The minister speaks about what we have read and tries to apply it to our lives.We worship to become stronger in love and to help us follow the way of Jesus Christ. What we do in the world should be deeply influenced by all we do in worship.