Worship at St Andrew's

COME

JOIN

US

The

Senior

Choir

Youth and

Children

Handbells

 "The worship of the people comes first".

Each opportunity for worship is an important occasion.  

Hymns, texts and liturgical orders join together with our homiletics to serve the Church's theme for the day.   All our worshipers unite with choirs and pastors to take part in -- to do-- the holy work of receiving and celebrating the good news in Christ.

This tradition has gathered a talented corps of music-makers who respond  to the enthusiastic and gifted leadership of our Director, Ada Smith.

  They routinely astound us with the power of their praise and the beauty of the spirit they bring to accompany the word from God.   The same heritage seems to inspire those who lead other aspects of the community worship.  They do things with great care while never without joy.   Those who supply our worship aids, religious decor and all the little things like bulletin inserts and ushering help similarly make it plain to us, again and again, and to visitors and neighbors that this is a place truly devoted to the service of God.

These things are not  for any kind of elite.

You don't have to be the best to be part of it.  It's just that those who recognize and love the great gift of high quality in what together we strive to offer seem to be attracted to participation.

The welcome of our choirs and serving groups is warm, enthusiastic and constant. 

"Come, join us!"

always the message of true worship.

 The Senior Choir

provides a number of 'special' services each year, including a major contribution at Christmas like the Lessons and Carols service of King's College in Cambridge and the marking of Holy Week with some form of Passion cantata.   Yet every Sunday is special, and the choir presents a lead for a singing of the Psalm, an anthem for the Day and leadership for worship acts.  They get this all done with a single rehearsal of about an hour and a half on Wednesday evenings.

 The Youth of the church

form a choir which practices as part of our unified teenage youth programs.  

A Junior choir

with its own director under Ada's supervision practices on Wednesday afternoons  where the littlest of us learn to sing together with attentiveness and with joy.

 Our handbell choir

 is equipped with an almost complete range of octaves, practices an hour a week on Wednesday evenings, and shares its abilities regularly in church.   Children's choirs use tone chimes and percussion elements often, and bell parts often ornament the pieces of other choirs.

 Instrumentalists

    In the past two years:

Besides employing a professional church organist, whose work includes an awful lot of work managing the temperament of our majestic and powerful pipe organ,

St Andrew's worship enjoys the support of the Reese Memorial Fund which permits us to engage the services of professionals on occasion to add trumpet, oboe, or harp to the music of worship.  

 Even more wonderfully, our congregation includes volunteer musicians who bring violin, flute, cello, brass--even trap drums and tympani on occasion!--to the choirs of praise.

 Plus, a new initiative welcomes student musicians from our next-door neighbor Lenoir-Rhyne College to share their professional abilities for a modest but important stipend.