St. Andrew Presbyterian Church has been a fixture on McCann Road in Longview, Texas since the late 1960s, a congregation born from a dream in 1963 and formally organized two years later. The church is known for being small in number but large in heart, for being the first church in Longview to ordain women as elders, and for helping to launch enduring community institutions such as Habitat for Humanity and Longview Community Ministries. Today, Pastor Stan Larson serves as the church's interim pastor, and Rachel Hill directs the Angel Academy. A love of Christ and a heart for community is the congregation's self-stated motto, and the building itself, with its sanctuary paintings, Celtic cross, and Memorial Garden, reflects a fellowship that has poured decades of artistic and pastoral energy into a single address.
The Dream That Became a Congregation
In 1963, Dr. Stephen Lucas Cook, minister of First Presbyterian Church in Longview, began sharing a vision: a new Presbyterian church would grow out of First Presbyterian as its own distinct congregation. Two years after the first worship service held in October 1965 at Bramlette Elementary School, that vision had gathered fifty-two families and signed a charter roll of seventy. The Presbytery of Northeast Texas, now Grace Presbytery, officially organized Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church on November 21, 1965, with Dr. Joel E. May as its organizing minister.
From the very beginning, the new congregation took positions that set it apart in Longview. In 1966, the church elected fifteen deacons and nine ruling elders, two of them women. This was the first church in Longview to place women on its official board. That same year, summer services moved to the air-conditioned Jewish Temple Emanu-El, forging a relationship with that congregation that continues today. On October 16, 1966, members gathered for a groundbreaking at the present 2500 McCann Road location, and the first educational and fellowship hall building was dedicated on May 7, 1967, with a total cost of $138,000 for building, street, driveway, furnishings, and equipment.
The years that followed shaped Saint Andrew's distinctive voice in the community. In November 1968 the Session voted to join First Presbyterian in operating a new Presbyterian Service Center on High Street, providing food, clothing, and household items to neighbors in need. The pledge budgets for 1966, 1967, and 1968 reflect that Saint Andrew gave away twenty-five percent of total funds received in benevolences. Members also openly supported the integration movement and were sometimes called "that little liberal church north of town." Some members left for more conservative churches, but those who stayed found the experience strengthened the congregation.
Sunday Worship on McCann Road
Sunday worship at Saint Andrew is held at 10:00 a.m., with the service livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook for those who cannot attend in person. Acolytes light the candles and lead the call to worship in the traditional service, and a printed worship bulletin is available each week. Communion is shared as a regular part of gathered worship.
The church follows a full liturgical year marked by colors and seasons. Ash Wednesday opens Lent with a short service of reflection, purple paraments signal the forty days of preparation, and Palm Sunday begins Holy Week with the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday recalls the Last Supper and Jesus washing the disciples' feet, Good Friday remembers the crucifixion, and Easter bursts forth in white. Advent is marked by handmade Chrismons, garlands, a wreath with fresh flowers and candles, and a white Christ Candle lit on Christmas Eve during the 5:00 and midnight services, when worshipers carry lit candles outside and process singing "Silent Night." Pentecost brings the color red and the celebration of the church's birthday.
Music is woven into each service. The sanctuary features an adult chancel choir and an adult hand bell choir. A 2008 Allen organ anchors worship, and an electric piano supports the early service when needed. Special music shapes the seasons: a string quartet for Advent and Christmas, trumpets for Lent and Easter, and partnerships with local college choirs.
Art and the Memorial Garden
The sanctuary at Saint Andrew is decorated by members who have given their gifts back to the church. In 1974, member Shirley Hughes Blackman painted "The Saint Andrew Series," six canvases titled "Birth," "Life," "Death," "Resurrection," "Pentecost," and "Hope." The basic color of each canvas was chosen from the liturgical colors of the church year, gold for symbols of faith, green for the life of the church, violet for the seasons of preparation, white for Christmas and Easter, and red for Pentecost. When the sanctuary was remodeled in 1983, the Resurrection painting was moved to the entrance foyer. A brochure explaining the paintings and their scriptural basis is available in the sanctuary.
To accompany the paintings, former minister Rev. William K. Hedrick wrote six poems that have been engraved on plaques and displayed beside each work. Judge William C. Martin III, a charter member, carved a wooden Celtic cross that hangs at the front of the sanctuary. James Sanders of Marshall, Texas, a potter commissioned by the church, made the chalices, plates, and pitchers used in the early worship service, as well as a baptismal bowl and pitcher used every Sunday. Member Marcia Everingham composed "A Baptismal Song," traditionally sung at baptisms, and "A Song for Saint Andrew," sung by the choir for the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary.
Behind the building, a Memorial Garden offers a place for cremated remains to be scattered with the Session's prior approval, and a Memorial Wall holds plaques bearing the names, dates of birth, and dates of death of those honored. At the center of the garden stands a "Little White Church" surrounded by plantings that church master gardeners tend.
Children and the Angel Academy
Saint Andrew takes the spiritual formation of children as one of its central callings. Sunday School classes for all ages meet from 9:00 to 10:00 each Sunday morning, before worship. Most of the curriculum is drawn from studies and books provided by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Children also participate in service projects such as Touch-a-Truck, helping with the Community Garden, taking trips to Six Flags, traveling to see Christmas lights, and joining Parents' Day Out programs. The church teams up with area Presbyterian churches to offer Vacation Bible School.
The Angel Academy, a Mother's Day Out program, has been a ministry of Saint Andrew since 1989. Classes meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:55 a.m. to 2:20 p.m., beginning in early September and ending in mid-May, with closings following local schools. The academy operates with small class sizes that allow deep connections between teachers and students, and each Wednesday morning the children gather with the pastor for chapel, joining in prayer, song, and Bible reading.
The program serves ages 2 through Pre-K. Ms. Sarah Garrison's class is for ages 2 and 3, Ms. Rebekah Dunaway's "Raccoons" class for ages 3 and 4, and Ms. Brenda O'Connor's "Owls" class for ages 4 and 5, where children write first and last names, work on uppercase and lowercase letters, simple math, counting to 30 in English and Spanish, and begin sight words in the spring. Rachel Hill has been Executive Director since 2007, drawing on her Associates in Child Development from Kilgore College and decades of child-care experience.
Youth Life
The Youth Ministry Group at Saint Andrew shelters, nurtures, and provides for the spiritual fellowship of youth in grades 6 through 12. Sunday School classes for youth meet from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. on Sundays, using PC(USA) curriculum. The youth from Saint Andrew and First Presbyterian Longview gather together for dinner, fellowship, games, and Bible study at the fall-out shelter at First Presbyterian.
Camps and conferences shape the youth calendar. Camp Gilmont in nearby Gilmer, Texas, offers retreats and summer camps, including the Youth Quake retreats in fall and spring. Mo-Ranch Conference Center near Kerrville, Texas, Montreat in western North Carolina, the Synod Youth Workshop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Senior High Youth Connection in Sherman, Texas, all provide opportunities for older youth. Mission trips have taken Saint Andrew youth to the Texas-Mexico border for the "Starfish" project, to southeast Arkansas, and to a Four Corners Indian reservation, as well as to Selma, Alabama. Youth have also led Youth Sunday on Mother's Day each year since 1984, planning and preparing every element of worship from flowers and bulletins to music and the sermon.
Adults: Sunday School, Bible Study, and Wednesday Nights
Adult Sunday School classes meet from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. each Sunday, with sessions designed to help members discern God's calling in every area of life and engage in interactive discussion. A Women's Bible Study gathers at 10:30 a.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month in the Fellowship Hall, and Wednesday nights are reserved for special events, meetings, music rehearsals, and fellowship gatherings.
The Adult Andrew Ministry Group coordinates adult education, fellowship, and evangelism. Its Wednesday Night Live dinners are a long-running tradition that originally began as a way to save fuel costs by gathering activities around one shared meal, and dinners are still followed by fellowship and programs. Adult retreats are held at Mo-Ranch in Hunt, Texas, Camp Gilmont, and Montreat.
Serving Longview: From Habitat to the Community Garden
A heritage of community service runs through Saint Andrew's history. Members helped organize and continue to support the Longview Community Ministries, which now sponsors Meals on Wheels, a food bank, and computer training, and Saint Andrew delivers Meals on Wheels routes on the second Tuesday of each month. Members also helped bring Habitat for Humanity to Longview and continue to support it, including building an all-Presbyterian Habitat home with four other congregations and helping construct a Women Built home. The East Texas Literacy Council holds tutor training twice a year on Saint Andrew's facilities, training volunteers to help adults learn to read.
Saint Andrew works with a network of churches through Family Promise of Longview, originally the Longview Interfaith Hospitality Network, or LIHN, which provides a support system to homeless families and helps them become self-sufficient. Members serve on the board, host families, and contribute financially. The church also supports D.O.R.S. Youth Transition Center, which serves at-risk youth ages 15 to 25, and Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services through the Angel Tree project at Christmas, when names of children and family members are placed on a tree in the fellowship hall for members to purchase requested gifts.
A community garden on the church grounds furnishes fresh vegetables to Longview Community Ministries, and member Steve Crane has helped five additional community gardens get started through mentoring. A Little Free Library near the curb by the church's front door offers a take-a-book, leave-a-book opportunity open to the neighborhood. The church building and grounds also serve as a volunteer clearing house for the Red Cross, hosting scout troops, soccer and baseball teams, and Alcoholics Anonymous, and Saint Andrew has opened its doors as a shelter for hurricane evacuees.
Hands Across Borders
Saint Andrew's outreach extends well beyond Longview. Through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, members respond alongside other Presbyterian volunteers in recovery work after disasters. The church has also been linked with the Pakistan Education Board, whose schools in Pakistan were started in the mid-1800s by Presbyterian missionaries from the United Presbyterian Church; the property is still owned by the PC(USA) and operated by Presbyterian Pakistani Christians.
From 2005 to 2011, Saint Andrew took part in Grace Presbytery's Growing in Partnership Through Sharing exchange with the North Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India, partnered with CSI St. Thomas Church in Sultan Bathery. Delegates traveled both ways, building relationships described by the Rt. Rev. Dr. George Isaac as opening "doors and windows" between the two churches.
A Heritage of Firsts
Several firsts mark Saint Andrew's place in Longview. It was the first church in the city to ordain women as elders. It openly supported the integration movement in the 1960s and worshipped jointly with a predominantly African American congregation. It helped organize the first community-wide Martin Luther King, Jr. service, a tradition the church still supports, and it has hosted World AIDS Day services. The Children's Association was organized by Saint Andrew, and the Harrison Street Day School opened in a vacant building after Presbytery closed Harrison Street Presbyterian Church to serve low-income families.
The Ministry Groups, a structure that organizes the life and ministry of the church, were established as a way to keep the congregation spiritually connected. Members are assigned to a Ministry Group, and the group leader maintains communication and nurture through prayer, phone calls, e-mail, and visits.
Beliefs and Identity
Saint Andrew teaches that God comes to us in free and undeserved favor in the person of Jesus Christ, who lived, died, and rose for us so that we might belong to God and serve Christ in the world. Through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, the church trusts in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel. Following Jesus, members are engaged in the world and in seeking thoughtful solutions to the challenges of their time, affirming God's grace and love in Christ, who sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within and give energy, intelligence, imagination, and love to be Christ's faithful disciples in the world.
The church holds to the principle of "the Church reformed, always reforming" as a testimony to the durability of faith and the openness to heed God's call to continue to reform. It respects differences of opinion, affirming diversity, openness, inclusiveness, and full participation as God's gift. The Six Great Ends of the Church guide its life and work: proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; maintenance of divine worship; preservation of truth; promotion of social righteousness; and exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.