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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.
Come and celebrate the hope and light that Christmas brings each winter
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. This is a place for everyone who’s wondering about life’s big questions and striving for a better world.
We host a year-round creative programme encompassing music, visual art and spoken word, drawing on St James’s rich cultural history including artists, writers and musicians Mary Beale, Mary Delany, William Blake, Ottobah Cugoano and Leopold Stokowski.
We try to put our faith into action by educating ourselves and speaking out on issues of injustice, especially concerning refugees, asylum, earth and racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues.
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.
It costs us £3,500 per day to enable us to keep our doors open to all who need us
Your donation will help us restore our garden in Piccadilly as part of The Wren Project, making it possible for us to welcome over 300,000 people from all faiths and walks of life seeking tranquillity and inspiration each year.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
Directions on Google Maps
Hear from Deborah Colvin, Church Warden, as she explains how Earth Justice at St James’s is rooted in loving and understanding the whole world and all its inhabitants, so that we act from a place of belonging.
What’s in a name? At SJP we’ve been through several iterations of eco-focussed engagement.
Back in the 1990s Creation Spirituality found a home here, with its focus on original blessing and Celtic spiritual tradition, and there was a thriving programme of events and liturgy.
In the 2000s we engaged with Shrinking the Footprint, the Church of England programme to measure and reduce energy use. We pursued this more or less painstakingly for several years, making some dramatic improvements such as roof insulation, a much more efficient boiler, LED lights for the market traders (instead of 500W halogens). We reduced our carbon footprint by over 50% as well as saving many thousands of pounds in energy bills.
The Eco Church scheme from A Rocha came along in 2015. We put our minds to completing the very helpful structured challenges and achieved bronze, silver, and gold awards in 2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively. The Eco Church scheme encouraged us to look at the whole of our life together. Action on energy, procurement, land use and biodiversity, worship, teaching, community and global engagement, and lifestyle are all required for a Gold Award. We continue to support A Rocha and Eco Church through giving talks, hosting visits and events, and assessing Gold Award churches.
And now, in the 2020s with atmospheric CO2 continuing to rise and communities that have done least to cause climate change feeling the impacts first and worst, our focus is on justice for the earth and all its life forms – Earth Justice. The structure of this website signals that Earth Justice sits firmly alongside Social Justice. We recognise that there can be no environmental justice without justice for people.
Our Earth Justice action plan for the coming years rests on a framework of Liturgy, Learning and Action. We continue our eco-contemplative liturgies in the Southwood Garden and on Zoom at 9.45am on the 4th Sunday of the month, as well as ‘special’ liturgies such as rogation and contributions to the 11am Eucharist. Learning takes many forms including talks, events, eco-pilgrimages, and projects such as Daily Bread and Aftermath. Action is based in liturgy and learning and needs all of us. Pleased do get in touch to help shape the future.
Deborah Colvin
Earthling, born at 318ppm
