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We offer daily services and a creative programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
We are delighted to announce that from 6 Jan until early Apr 2025, work will take place to reinstate the church’s South Door onto Jermyn Street, part of Sir Christopher Wren’s original design.
St James’s hosts inclusive services and a cultural programme. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
St James’s is a place to explore, reflect, pray, and support all who are in need. We are a Church of England parish in the Anglican Communion.
We host a year-round creative programme encompassing music, visual art and spoken word.
We offer hospitality to people going through homelessness and speak out on issues of injustice, especially concerning refugees, asylum, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues.
St James’s strives to advocate for earth justice and to develop deeper connections with nature.
We aspire to be a home where everyone can belong. We’re known locally and globally for our unique history and beauty, as well as faith in action, creativity and the arts, and a commitment to social and environmental justice.
We strive to be a Eucharist-centred, diverse and inclusive Christian community promoting life in abundance, wellbeing and dignity for all.
St James’s Piccadilly has been at the heart of its community since 1684. We invite you to play your part in securing this historic place for generations to come.
The work of St James’s, it costs us £5,000 per day to enable us to keep our doors open to all who need us.
New walkways, a restored courtyard and re-landscaped gardens will provide fully accessible, beautiful spaces for everyone to enjoy as well as improving our environmental performance.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
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We understand Earth Justice at St James’s as rooted in loving and understanding the whole world and all its inhabitants (human and other-than-human) so that we act from a place of belonging.
We aim to continually discern what we as a community can uniquely offer in this time of crisis. We do this through learning, liturgy and action.
St James’s achieved Gold Eco Church status in 2018 for our work across the five Eco Church categories of Worship and Teaching; Buildings; Land; Community and Global action; Lifestyle.
We hope our work will encourage other urban churches to get involved with Eco Church.
Mary Stewart reports on this year’s ‘Lifelines’ hedgerow planting experience at Hilfield Friary in Dorset.
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Joan Ishibashi reflects on how a moral injury framework might help us come to terms with our personal and collective responsibility for the climate and ecological crisis ahead of St James’s webinar on 15 January.
Coinciding with Black History month Ayla Lepine considers how art can act as a prompt for reapproaching contested histories in reflecting on racial justice and faith.
Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – Time to get rid of all those single use plastic bottles of cleaning product cluttering up the cupboard under the sink! Try this simple recipe to produce your own fresh-smelling, anti-bacterial cleaner.
Petra reflects on the Christian contemplative tradition that emphasises humanity’s deep connection with nature, drawing on the wisdom of medieval mystics like Hildegard of Bingen.
Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – Ditch the chemicals and plastic waste by trying this easy homemade hair care routine!
Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – Nature is full of useful plants and I use Comfrey and Nettle liquid fertiliser in my allotment and on my garden plants.
Jonathan Sutton, a member of Young St James’s, reflects on birds in nature and faith.
Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – A really simple mix of salts makes a really fine washing powder. Why would you want to carry all that extra liquid home from the supermarket when you can make this at home?
Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – No parabens, phthalates or synthetic-anything in this moisturiser! Strictly plant oils and beeswax.
As newly elected governments across the world roll out their policies for the next four years, there is near universal agreement on the top priority: economic growth. But there are increasing challenges to this broad consensus. In part 2 of this two-part reflection for the Season of Creation, Penelope looks at some solutions.
As newly elected governments across the world roll out their policies for the next four years, there is near universal agreement on the top priority: economic growth. But for good reason there are increasing challenges to this broad consensus. In part 1 of this two-part reflection for the Season of Creation, Penelope looks at the state we’re in.
Deborah reflects on the worldwide Season of Creation (1 Sept to 4 Oct) with ideas for participation and a foretaste of St James’s activities
St James’s is supporting Zero Hour, the campaign for the Climate and Nature Bill, a plan for a new UK law that addresses climate change, global warming, and the nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science.
Changing Our Minds, the recent series of Conversations with North American and Australian speakers, proved a rich and challenging experience. Diane Pacitti was struck by the similarities between the vision of indigenous peoples and that of William Blake, our own artist-poet and prophet, baptised in St James’s in 1757.
Catherine Tidnam celebrates St James’s garden receiving the Green Flag Award for 2024/25, reflecting on the importance of accessibility, biodiversity, and sustainable practices, and highlights the transformative experience of showcasing their garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Robert Myers, St James’s Chelsea Show Garden designer, explains how prioritising sustainability throughout the projects lifecycle sets a new standard for ecologically-driven practices.
St James’s Eco Church team member Penelope Turton reflects on the devastating impact of waste at Christmas, emphasising the birth of Jesus as the One who brings ‘new hope to the poorest and most marginalised in society.’
Julia Chalkley reports on a wet and wonderful weekend in Suffolk.
Penelope Turton asks what Christians in rich countries should be doing about the climate crisis.
Diane Pacitti explores the historical revolutionary ideas of Gerrard Winstanley and the contemporary relevance of indigenous voices in addressing environmental crises.
Diane Pacciti introduces the radical vision of John Ball, the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, and the Diggers and Levellers communities in the 17th century.
Joan Ishibashi shares the importance of the Three Sisters in American farming and food – maize, beans and squash.
Catherine Tidnam, St James’s Gardener, explains how we achieved Green Flag Status.
This weeks’ Thought for the Week is brought to you by the Three Sisters – corn (or maize), beans and squash – in dialogue with their human partners. These plants, tended by First Nations Americans, have flourished together for millennia, providing food for both human and more-than-human creatures. As southern Europe bakes under extreme temperatures and monocrops wither in parched fields, what stories of survival and abundance do they have to tell?
We celebrate St Francis as the saint who radically re-imagined our relationship with the earth and the cosmos.
In June, the Food For The Ecozoic Grow Box is finally taking off! The season has been a salutary reminder that agricultural/horticultural food production is not straightforward.
An estimated 60 000 people from all over the country joined Christian Climate Action and 200 other environmental organisations in Parliament Square over the four-day weekend of 21-24 April.
Deborah Colvin, Church Warden and Eco Team member, talks about St James’s new growing project ‘Food for the Ecozoic’.
Church Warden, Deborah Colvin, shares her experience of planting hedgerows as part of our Earth Justice project.
In the latest of our occasional Earth Justice blogs, Sara Mark reflects on the season.
Listen to Lucy’s ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio 4 which was broadcast on Tuesday 9 November 2022, in which she reflects on the climate crisis.
Diane Pacitti argues that we need to decentre our view of the world, drawing on an anthology in which five of her poems written for St. James’s appear alongside works by African writers.
As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ St James’s Walking Boots Group give their reflections on connecting with each other and with nature.
As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Joe Dolman, writes his Thought for the Week about the joys & challenges of having an allotment.
As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Catherine Tidnam, St James’s Gardener, writes her Thought for the Week about developing a deeper understanding of the complexity of the natural world.
As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Penelope Turton, of St James’s Eco Team, writes her Thought for the Week about our sense of deep communion with the rest of nature.
As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Joan Ishibashi, of St James’s Eco Team, writes her Thought for the Week about the increasing challenges of the climate crisis and wildfires.
Zoe Cuckow, who’s been involved with Earth Justice at SJP for the last 3 years, talks about swifts, being a community and facing the future together.
In the latest of our occasional Earth Justice blog posts, Lisa Barrott shares how for ten days she lived alongside a family of swallows, caring about what happened to them, in awe of their beauty and abilities.
View images and video of some of our recent projects including Daily Bread, Aftermath, and A Triumph of Delights.
Daily Bread ‘Grain of Hope, Slice of Heaven’
Mark Oakley and Diane Pacitti met at St James’s to read and discuss poetry. Diane focused on poems she had written for Earth Justice projects at St James’s.
Aftermath ‘Bomb Box’
A Triumph of Delights
Gold Eco Church Award
Joan Ishibashi
Joan first became aware of the problems of pollution as a youth listening to the daily “smog alerts” on the radio in her hometown of Los Angeles. More recently she kept an N95 mask on hand and wore it during the raging wildfires. She is a retired United Church of Christ minister now living in London and is grateful to be a part of the St. James’s Eco Church group which challenges her to live more sustainably in this destructive Anthropocene age.
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Zoe Cuckow
I’ve been involved in Earth Justice at SJP for the last 3 years. I got involved because I was inspired by the breadth of the activities and imagination of the eco-team. Despite the immense challenges facing our planet and communities worldwide, I find being involved SJP’s Earth Justice work hugely enjoyable. It makes me more hopeful for the future of our shared planet.
Petra Griffiths
I have had a commitment to a green and holistic spirituality since my involvement with creation spirituality, which introduced me to the Christian contemplatives. I am a member of Greenspirit, Muswell Hill Sustainability, and a shareholder in EN10 Energy zero carbon community energy. Through Journeying Together and Living Spirituality Connections we explore what an embodied spirituality that is embedded within the web of life means to us.
Deborah Colvin
Deborah has been active in sustainability and conservation for many years as an educator and scientist as well as through church activities. She is looking forward to the day when the word ‘eco’ becomes redundant because we humans have learned to live with limitation while celebrating all that this good earth offers.
Penelope Turton
Penelope has long been exercised by the environmental catastrophe we face. She has a particular interest in in finding ways of living that honour our connectedness and interdependency with the natural world and seek to minimise the damage we do.
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