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We offer daily services and a cultural programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate
Saturday 6 December 12.30pm
Come and follow the shepherds to Bethlehem with John Rutter’s lively Shepherd’s Pipe Carol and Harrison Knights’ evocative arrangement of How Far Is It To Bethlehem?
Sunday 7 December 2-4pm
Once again we’ll be rocking St James’s gorgeous courtyard with our own gospel take on the Nine Lessons And Carols, a selection of seasonal texts and sizzling gospel arrangements of carols.
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 aim to be a place where you can belong. We have a unique history, and the beauty of our building is widely known. Our community commits to faith in action: social and environmental justice; creativity. and the arts
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.
From 2–9 December, any donation you choose to make will be doubled through The Big Give.
A reimagined St James’s realised. A redesigned garden, courtyard and new building capacity—all fully accessible— will provide beautiful spaces for all as well as improving our environmental performance.
Whether shooting a blockbuster TV series or creating a unique corporate event, every hire at St James’s helps our works within the community.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
Directions on Google Maps
A Global Youth Storytelling Exhibition
New York, April 2025
Changemaker Lens is the storytelling strand of the St James’s Youth Changemakers programme. It invites young people from the UK, US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and South Africa to tell the truth of their lived experience through photography, film, art and creative expression. Launching in New York in April 2026, it forms the heart of an emerging global ecosystem of youth leadership. It is not a finished exhibition. It is an invitation to enter a shared human story.
When will applications open?
Applications will open in January 2026 for up to 12 young people from the UK, aged 20-30, to exhibit their work at Changemaker Lens.
When will applications close?
Sunday 1 March 2026
What are the requirements? Applicants must:
What will it involve?
Once selected, young Changemakers from the UK and global partners will receive a grant between £500-£1000 to support their practice, and will be invited into a reflective creative process using a peer-support framework. This will include:
Changemakers will be encouraged to document:
They may choose photography, short video, painting, audio reflection, graffiti art, illustration, digital collage, or other accessible forms. What matters is honesty, dignity and connection rather than polish. The brief intentionally avoids technical rules. It focuses instead on care, agency and the invitation to share what feels meaningful.
The Exhibition
Changemakers will be chosen to exhibit their work at an exhibition in New York in April 2026, with cultural institutions, funders, and practitioners in attendance.
New York is a crossroads of global identity. It is a city where art, activism and public imagination met. Showcasing the Lens there brings a symbolic and practical visibility to young voices whose stories are often unheard. It signals that youth leadership deserves to be seen on the world stage.
Who are our Global Partners?
Alongside our St James’s cohort, we are working in partnership with brilliant organisations whose young voices will be woven through Changemaker Lens:
• Action Equity and Empowerment Organisation (Syria) • Princess Motswana Institute (South Africa) • Tamer Institute (Palestine) • Princess Taghrid Institute (Jordan) • Triibe (Washington DC) • University of Utah
Why Storytelling?
Young people everywhere face shifting grounds. The future of work is unstable and unpredictable. Many will move between multiple careers and identities. Others live through conflict, displacement, or environmental upheaval. Storytelling provides an anchor in this landscape.
Globally, art, photography, and creative expression have been used in the face of systemic oppression to resist, to survive, and to build community.
We want young people to:
A photograph of a quiet morning in Gaza, a spoken word piece from Washington, or a video diary from a young person in London does not simply show a moment. It reveals the inner life of a generation who are trying to make sense of a rapidly changing world.
Changemaker Lens is a visual storytelling platform that brings together young changemakers whose worlds may differ but whose questions often echo one another. It carries the central inquiry of the Youth Changemaker Programme:
What if leadership is something we live together, rather than something we hold alone?
It invites young people to explore the three leadership dimensions at the centre of the Youth Changemakers programme:
The Lens becomes the meeting place of these dimensions. It transforms reflection into visibility and visibility into connection.
