About Us
Finding Inspiration in Every Turn
St Andrew's is a regenerating congregation.
God is doing a new thing in an old place, and it is messy and beautiful! A core group of faithful elders have maintained and sustained a worshiping community here for decades. In recent years, challenges like Covid and the death, from cancer, of a beloved priest diminished the congregation.
But God has brought new life through the partnership with WeShine PDX and in the deepening of our self-understanding as a congregation in solidarity with the poor and other church rejects. Today, St Andrew's is growing as North Portland neighbors discover community, social action, and deep engagement with scripture here. We invite you to be part of this experiment in resurrection! It's a work in progress (isn't all of life?!) and we're still pretty scrappy. There's also an exciting synergy as, in the (paraphrased) words of the prophet Joel, in another time when God was doing a new thing, "I will pour out my Spirit...old people will dream dreams and young people will see visions."
Thanks to God and our ancestors in the faith, we are the stewards of a serene and inspiring sacred space in North Portland. Our vision—God's vision, we believe—is that it grows into its potential as a place for the community to find stillness and peace, alleviate loneliness, shelter creativity, and provide sanctuary.
Do you have skills to contribute? We honor participation above perfection! Your offerings will be seen and valued in this small place. Join folks already engaged in things like:
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Making music in worship
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Naturescaping the grounds
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Fixing buildings (kind of constantly)
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Meeting and greeting new folks
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Volunteering at the pantry
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Bringing food
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Adorning the church with artwork
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Hearing and blessing the brokenhearted
St. Andrew's Land Acknowledgement
The land and the waters, the sky and the plants and the animals in this place are gifts of the Holy One, the Creator. We are not the first people to pray on this land. The Oregon Land Donation Act of 1850 removed tribes and offered free land to white settler/colonizers, who laid claim to 2.5 million acres of tribal land—including what is now North Portland—over the course of seven years. 45 years later the founders of St Andrew’s, our foremothers and forefathers in the faith, from whose labors and sacrifices we now benefit, established an Episcopal church and community in this place. Furthermore, our church stood to witness the forced removal of families of Japanese descent from the Portland area and the destruction of the community of Vanport, home to Black, Native, and other workers who migrated to the Portland area for jobs in the shipbuilding industry. By acknowledging the sins of our ancestors we do not excuse ourselves but commit, before each other and before God, to the ongoing work of restoration and reparation which the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ requires of us. We proclaim proudly that we live in the city with the ninth largest Indigenous population in the US and we uplift and support NAYA’s mission “to enhance the diverse strengths of our youth and families in partnership with the community through cultural identity and education.”
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