Next year is St Andrew’s 120th anniversary. A lot has changed in those years. When it was built, our church was the tallest building in an area that was largely undeveloped – beyond Nathan Rd and Austin Rd were fields. In its first year, St Andrew’s had a congregation of just thirty people.
Nowadays, our church family is made of around thirty nationalities. We’re a diverse community, reflecting the diversity of our city. People who call St Andrew’s their spiritual home come from a variety of backgrounds. We each have our own story. However, we’re united in our common faith in Jesus. In this respect, St Andrew’s has remained unchanged over the years: we exist to know Jesus and to make him known to others.
We’re so thankful for the countless ways that God has provided for our church community over the years. He has gathered us as his children in Jesus Christ, our firm foundation; he transforms us in faith and sustains us in every season of life. Next year, we’re going to celebrate God’s goodness to us in a variety of ways.
We’re so thankful for the countless ways that God has provided
We’ll celebrate our anniversary on the weekend of the 25th and 26th of April. On the Saturday afternoon, we’ll hold a special thanksgiving event which includes musical worship, prayer, and reflections. Afterwards, we’ll have a church BBQ together. On the Sunday, we’ll have special times of thanksgiving during our services, and the 11.30am English and Putonghua services will be combined. At 2.30pm, we’ll hold our Annual Church Meeting. Please make sure you schedule these events in your calendar.
We’re aware that God has blessed St Andrew’s with wonderful facilities. He’s provided these facilities through the generosity and wise stewardship of those before us. We want to continue this wise stewardship, so that our property can continue to be well used to serve our church community, and people from across our city. With this in mind, we plan to undertake some renovations next year to the Life Centre Basement, the Church, and the Old Vicarage to ensure their continued effective usage.
As always, we’re dependant on the generosity of God’s people in providing for our ministries and the care of our facilities. We’ll host some community-building and fund-raising events, release 120th anniversary merchandise, as well as inviting our people to provide a thanksgiving donation towards these renovations. More details will be given early next year.
Anniversaries are a great opportunity to give thanks for what’s happened in the past, as well as anticipating what’s to come in the future. We hope that in celebrating God’s goodness to us, we’ll have a renewed desire and vigour in proclaiming the excellencies of Jesus, in sharing his message to others, and in giving ourselves to his service. We pray that St Andrew’s will continue to give glory to Jesus until he returns.
