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ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
ARCHDIOCESE OF THYATEIRA AND GREAT BRITAIN

The Orthodox Community of St Andrew in Edinburgh is a parish of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, which is part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The history of our Community goes back to 1948 when Archpriest John Sotnikov, a Russian Chaplain of the Polish Army, started holding services for Polish ex-servicemen who had settled in Edinburgh. The Community, which from the outset was part of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, soon embraced other Orthodox Christians living in Edinburgh (Greeks, Russians, Serbs).

‘’Batiushka’’ John, having served faithfully and selflessly in Edinburgh and beyond, was succeeded in 1984 by Archimandrite John Maitland Moir, a native of Scotland, who had been received into Orthodoxy on the Holy Mountain. Serving in Greek, Slavonic and now in English Fr John Maitland Moir continued and expanded the work of Fr John Sotnikov, the Community now becoming even more accessible to all Orthodox and those interested in Orthodoxy, and attracting a steadily increasing number of faithful.

At St Andrew’s, with God’s help, we aspire to continue the tradition of Christian love and faithfulness to Orthodoxy we have inherited.
We have services daily and Divine Liturgy on Saturdays, Sundays and major feasts. We worship mainly in English, but we also use Greek, Slavonic and Romanian. We also host a number of other activities which can be found on our website, and coordinate the work of several Orthodox Communities in Scotland.

Click here to view the constitution of the Edinburgh Orthodox community of St Andrew