Local

Our social outreach groups have professional leaders but are largely run by committed volunteers. The groups focus on service to our local community through children and family work, youth work, and caring for frail people or those with dementia. Our uniformed organisations continue a longstanding and unbroken tradition that has existed in St Andrew’s under the many ministers who have served the church during its existence on the current site in Grange Terrace. The extent and variety of service provided by volunteers in the church has led to St Andrew’s receiving many of the volunteering awards which Falkirk Council bestows on local communities. Indeed, Bo’ness as a whole has recently been named as a thriving hub of voluntary and charitable activity with around 150 charities and voluntary organisations operating and turning over £2.5 million a year.

National

St Andrew’s has become known for embracing new ideas, and it is many years since we began using film and other media in our own worship and in support of prayer and study, such as the Labyrinth meditation. Later, the development of the internet has allowed us to have close contact with partner bodies and to communicate the word of God to a wider audience. Along the way we have acquired a steadily growing internet congregation of people looking in from home and from many countries abroad. We are pleased to welcome them as they tune in to our Sunday worship which is streamed out across the world. The use of media in the church led to the setting up of a separate, independent body, Sanctus Media, who still work in close relationship with St Andrew’s but also provide professional media services for the Church of Scotland and other organisations.

International

It was from within St Andrew’s that the Vine Trust charity began with support from ‘Branches’, the church shop in the Market Square. From there, the Vine Trust has gone on to become an international charity, currently providing healthcare and education in Peru and Tanzania. As a church we support projects in south India that work with children and widows. In St Andrew’s, we believe that every church member is called to share in ministry and that all are called to the vocation of discipleship. This means living out gospel values in our everyday lives at work and at home, serving the local community and being involved in other national or overseas projects.