Finding Home at St James’s

I have been at St James’s for nearly eight years. I started as a full-time verger. I really got to know the church, the people, and what St James’s stands for, especially how diverse and how inclusive it is. I felt I really started to fit in and belong and wondered if the Church of England was really for me. In 2020 I left the staff team during Covid and worked for the NHS. St James’s then became a place of worship as a member of the congregation. It wasn’t just a place of work, but of family, friends, and community.

PCC stands for ‘Parochial Church Council’, which is the governing body of the church. You get to make decisions. Help shape the mission and ministry of the church, including worship, outreach and finance. We meet approximately once a month and for away days twice a year. As a governing body, we have responsibilities including overseeing the budget, ensuring safeguarding is a top priority at all times, and looking after the building. The PCC reports to the congregation regularly, and there are updates in the newsletter, online, and in person as well.

I joined the PCC relatively recently, because I wanted to learn more about how the church runs. I wanted to understand the background, the finances, and the way that personnel are recruited and join the team, as well as how the building and our church fabric is looked after, and how it runs ‘back of house’, not just on a Sunday or for services. There is a lot to be done on the PCC and it is an important part of my life at St James’s. As a member of the PCC I’ve learned a lot about the logistics of the church. What might look simple on the surface can be a lot more complicated than it seems.

It’s not just about the church as a building, it’s also about the people – the whole community and the parish. And it’s about their livelihoods for people who work at the church as well as the lives of everyone who worships here. It’s our home and spiritual retreat. It’s important to me to find a balance so that everyone is looked after. It can be difficult and also very rewarding.

I’m part of the Deanery Synod as well, representing St James’s as a parish within the Diocese of London and the Church of England. Deanery Synod is a local assembly of parishes who are linked together as neighbours in our part of London. We meet to discuss local issues, share resources, feed back opinions and viewpoints from St James’s, and ensure that our church has a voice in wider decision-making and conversations within the Church’s structures and systems. It’s a part of local governance. Deanery  Synod is less hands-on than the PCC, but it’s an important part of ensuring that St James’s Piccadilly is part of the Diocese of London’s voice.

What I most enjoy about the church community is the feeling of being there together with a common goal. I speak about it quite often. For me, Communion is the most important part. It’s that one moment where we all get up in unison. We gather around the altar together. And we are there for the same reason: that central point where Christ is. It’s just so beautiful that no matter how many times I do it, no matter how long it’s been, I always get that sense of coming home.

St James’s is a unique place with all the amazing outreach work, projects, and programmes. It’s about looking outwards and reaching the community in a practical way. But it’s also much deeper. The doors are open to everyone, every day. People take time out of their busy day just to spend some time with Christ, and to be treated as equals. This is an important part of St James’s ministry, because God sees and welcomes everybody, warts and all. That’s probably one of the reasons why I love it so much. No matter my strengths or my weaknesses, I am accepted, as myself.

I think the Church of England has got a lot of things right. But I also feel sometimes that it can be blinkered. I hope that at some point in the future it will be more open to the idea that people are just people, and that love is literally just love. I think we can start looking at things that we can change as a Church together: fighting against poverty in our country, supporting refugees and asylum seekers, having more love and compassion, accepting that there are people with many faiths and with no faith too. Everyone has a right to dignity and respect. I think that we, as people generally, not just the Church, have a responsibility to one another.

As a person who’s going through discernment at the moment to see if God is calling me to be a priest, I am looking to see what my future in the Church might be. I genuinely feel I’m in the right place, at the right time, with the right people.  As a part of my journey in the Church and in my faith, St James’s has taught me to be more confident and comfortable in my own skin too.