St. Andrew’s church stands in the centre of Moscow, and is one of very few examples of English Victorian architecture in Russia. The parsonage, which is on the same site, was built in the same style. 

The church belongs to the Diocese of Europe, which is part of the Church of England, in turn part of the world-wide Anglican communion.

St. Andrew's ministers to the large number of English speakers in Moscow, mostly British, American and African. Our chaplain, the Rev’d Dr Simon Stephens OBE RN, has been with us since December 1999, and his first major task has been to supervise the reregistration of the church under Russian religious law, and to further attempts to reclaim our church building.

The church was built in 1882-4 and replaced the earlier English chapel which occupied the same site. It was appropriated after the Communist Revolution and was used for a variety of secular purposes—since 1960 as the recording studio of the Russian record label “Melodiya”. Services have been held again in the church since 14^th July 1991.

The return of the buildings to the Anglican Church was promised during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II on 19^th October 1994. We gained possession of the parsonage in 1998, and the first stage of renovation and restoration work on this building was completed in that year. We have recently been given the main church back, but the tower and other rooms in the building are still occupied by Melodiya. Nevertheless, we need to begin much-needed maintenance and renovation work so that we may start restoring the church to the “beauty of holiness”.