(Telegraph) St Andrew’s: Moscow’s only Anglican church

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Moscow’s only Anglican church, St Andrew’s, opened its doors 127 years ago to meet the needs of the Russian capital’s growing British community.

Seeing as the Scots were the wealthiest members of the community at the time, the church was dedicated to the patron saint of Scotland.

The architect, Richard Knill Freeman, never came to Russia, sending the drawings of the building (a replica of hundreds of Victorian Anglican churches) and his recommendations by post.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Russia

3 Comments
Posted December 9, 2011 at 5:32 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Second Citizen wrote:

The original article is rather brief, but I’d like to suggest another reason for the name of this church: St. Andrew is the patron of Russia.

December 9, 6:51 pm | [comment link]
2. Anastasios wrote:

The Brits in Moscow at the time were Scots, brought in to jump-start the Russian textile industry and built railways, so Andrew was an obvious choice for them.
I was the chaplain at the British Embassy 1991 when one of those God-given opportunities arose to visit the old church, then the Melodiya studios. One door after another opened to get us access to the director of the studio, an Orthodox Christian. He knew the history of the place and was more than willing to permit the Anglican community access. Like negotiating for Sodom and Gomorrah in reverse, our request went from a one-off service to an annual event and eventually to every month. Now, as you can read, it’s back in full-time business. Our first Eucharist was on July 14, 1991. There is one oddity due to Orthodox concerns, however: that lovely old tower was never allowed to have any bells!

December 9, 10:23 pm | [comment link]
3. Second Citizen wrote:

Anastasios, Great history! The Orthodox may have thought you would install Russian-style bells, which would confuse the locals into thinking they were at an Orthodox church. Maybe they wouldn’t have minded western-style bells?

December 10, 9:47 am | [comment link]
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