We're joining the Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild challenge – with a twist.

​We’ll be in St James's courtyard every day (except Saturdays) in June with #30DaysMicroWild, featuring different post-Covid aspects of the courtyard each day e.g. ‘weeds’ growing in cracks, lichens, succession and soil formation in action.

​One quarter of the courtyard will be left alone - rewilded! - for this month. In the past we have sometimes ‘peopled’ the church to maintain a human presence. Join us this month in peopling the courtyard as plans are made for its future.

There’ll be poetry reading and writing, microscope activities, drawing, photography, music, mini-botany tours, print-making, conversation and anything else you would like to offer! Join us in the courtyard, follow us on Twitter @EcoSJP and the Aftermath blog here or go wild in your own places and send us updates churchwardens@sjp.org.uk.​

Thursday 3rd June at 4.30pm
​on Zoom

​Exploring how poetry emerges from, and gives voice to, diverse experiences of exile, flight, abuse, hope, refuge and belonging.

This is the third of a 4-part series on the themes of Migration, Theology and Community.
​
Register for this free event via eventbrite here. 

Four poets – Amir Darwish, Jennifer Langer, Alison Phipps, Tawona Sitholé – and Lia Shimada (chair) will explore how poetry emerges from, and gives voice to, diverse experiences of exile, flight, abuse, hope, refuge and belonging. They will be joined by representatives from the Helen Bamber Foundation – a pioneering human rights charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers who are the survivors of extreme human cruelty.

Mapping Faith: Theologies of Migration and Community (published by Jessica Kingsley, 2020) brings together over 35 writers, poets, artists and practitioners, from primarily Jewish, Muslim and Christian backgrounds. Royalties from book sales will be donated to the Helen Bamber Foundation, with whom HeartEdge has a longstanding relationship. This event is co-sponsored by the Susanna Wesley Foundation, which facilitated the production of the book.

Alison Phipps holds the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, where she is also Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies, and Co-Convenor of the Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network.

Tawona Sitholé is Artist in Residence of the UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow. He co-founded Seeds for Thought, an arts organization based in Glasgow.

Amir Darwish is a poet and writer of Kurdish origin, whose work has been widely translated. Born in Aleppo, he came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2003. Amir holds advanced degrees in History, International Relations, and Creative and Life Writing. He is currently working on his doctorate.

Jennifer Langer is a poet and the founding director of Exiled Writers Ink. She has edited four anthologies of exiled literature and is a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Lia Shimada is a geographer and theologian based at the University of Roehampton, where she serves as Senior Researcher for the Susanna Wesley Foundation and Associate Chaplain of Whitelands College. She is the editor of Mapping Faith: Theologies of Migration and Community (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2020).

Our Eco Contemplative Liturgy this month will be held on Sunday 23rd May at 3pm on Zoom.

We will finish in time to join St James's APCM (Annual Parochial Church meeting) at 4pm.
​          
Please email ecochurch@sjp.org.uk in order to get the Zoom link and liturgy sheet. Those attending regularly will receive an email with the details.
​
​If you are in the fortunate position of having some outside space, please do Zoom from outside, or from a window/door with a view. Alternatively, you might like to collect a leaf, flower, stone or shell before the liturgy. Participants will be invited to speak about their experience in their garden, view or object if they would like to.  
​
The session will be open from 2.50pm. Arriving before 3.00pm will enable any glitches with audio or video to be sorted.  You are welcome to stay a while afterwards to chat with others. We are especially interested inore sustainable ways of living that you have adopted. ​

If you’re looking for vital and thought-provoking poetry reading, writing and reflection, we recommend this weekend retreat led by our very good friends Rosie Miles and Nicola Slee. Rosie and Nicola will use the Being Alive anthology as the basis for considering how poems can help inspire, nourish, motivate and resource us as we live through challenging times and into new realities.  They may also occasionally delve into the other anthologies in this excellent series: Staying Alive, Being Human, and – most recently – Staying Human.
For more information and to book your place click here.

Our friends at Amos Trust have an online open webinar with Sami Awad in Bethlehem. It's free, but you need to register beforehand. Sami is the director of the HolyLand Trust in Bethlehem and has spoken at Greenbelt many times. Click here for more info and to book a free ticket.

Click here to read our Weekly News Update including Ascension Day Eucharist tomorrow (Thurs 13th May) at 6.30pm, Rogation Walk around the parish boundary (Sun 30th May), and Piccadilly Piano Plus, a diverse series of outstanding performances curated by St James's as part of our ongoing re-opening, and in support of musicians whose livelihoods have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

Please join our friends at the North Lambeth Christian Aid Group by supporting their fundraising activities from 8th-16th May.

​To donate to the group, please go to their justgiving page here.

Get sponsored as you join in a VIRTUAL CAMINO WALK from Leon to Santiago, join a QUIZ NIGHT on Fri 14th or Sat 15th May, or support a BOOK AND FOOD SALE on Sat 15th May in Cleaver Square. All details on the poster (right).

If you'd like to do your Camino challenge  a week later, or for a shorter period of time, please let Carol Woollard know when you register your participation with her at cwoolard@talk21.com
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Each evening of 8th - 16th May, Carol will be sending out information and photos of the route walked or cycled (eg photos of scenery, ancient churches, hostel you will stay in), and a Zoom meeting will be held on 16th May, which will include a member of the Confraternity of St James who will be able to give folk information about books, maps, etc available at Christchurch Blackfriars, and support people who want to do a real Camino when travel restrictions are lifted.​

In January this year, eight members of St James's congregation from different ethnic backgrounds, formed a group to meet and study Ben Lindsay’s book, We Need to Talk about Race: Understanding the Black Experience in White Majority Churches. We were Sylvia Ayo, Hermione Cameron, Carolyn Davies, Elizabeth Hall, Cornell Jackson, Tamya Kerr, Jayne Preest and Tony Sanchez.  
 
As a pilot group we wanted to find a way to create a safe space to journey together and engage with the challenges raised in Ben’s book. We wanted to make sure that there was space for people to bring their personal reflections without discounting or dismissing others' experiences, acknowledging that between us we had varied backgrounds and positioning in relation to race and racism in the church. 
 

​While the topics and issues raised in Ben’s book were often saddening and at times confronting, our journey together was a gentle, tender and respectful one supporting much needed awareness, validation and healing.
 
With the overall purpose of the project being to create more inclusiveness at St James's, we have drawn on our journey together in the group and come up with some guidelines to support the wider congregation to support a safe and enriching experience in journeying with this important text together.  Much of this will be covered in our orientation session on Thursday evening May 27th. (No reading of the book is required for this first session).
 
We hope as many people as possible will join this initiative and find great value and healing in it as we did. We especially want to encourage those of us who are white to attend and commit to learning more about racism and the church.
 
The series runs on Thursday evenings from 8pm-9pm: May 27th, June 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th. We will begin each online session together before moving into smaller breakout rooms for discussion. Contributors: Cornell Jackson, Joan Ishibashi, Tamya Kerr, Jane Preest and Carolyn Davies. Registrations: Ali Beck. Click here for more information and to register.
 
Finally, we would like to acknowledge that this project is one of the initiatives of the St James's Diversity and Inclusion Team which is headed up by Ben Mariam and Wilson Wong and includes Monica Bashade, Jo Gowers, Raks Patel, Jane Preest, Carolyn Davies and clergy link The Revd Dr John Russell.

Click here to read our Weekly Update including the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM), Piccadilly Piano Plus - Chamber Music Series, Black Lives Matter Book Groups, and recruitment for a new PCC Secretary.

​Each year at the AMP, we elect/re-elect churchwardens, to serve for the next twelve months. There are two churchwarden positions. Both Deborah Colvin and Trevor Lines are standing for re-election. Should any other members of the electoral roll wish to stand for election, please either contact Lucy or email Graham, our PCC Secretary at pcc@sjp.org.uk.
 
In most years, we also elect lay PCC members to vacancies that arise on the PCC. We elected/re-elected six members at the last APCM in October 2020, as well as four Deanery Synod representatives, all to serve for a term of office until the 2023 APCM. This year, as there are no members reaching the end of their term of office, there will be no elections at the APCM.
 
To be eligible to vote in elections at the AMP and future APCMs, you will need to be on the electoral roll (or in the case of election of churchwardens, you may be a resident of the parish). Membership of the electoral roll is also important to our voice in the wider church, as it determines the number of Deanery Synod Representatives that we are eligible to appoint, which at the moment is four.

If you are not currently on the electoral roll, but would like to join, enrolment forms are available from David secretary@sjp.org.uk.
 
Notice to convene Annual Meeting of Parishioners here
​Notice to convene Annual Parochial Church Meeting here

Click here to read our Weekly Update including Soul at Saint James on 25th April, Actions for Earth Justice, the AFTERMATH project, and an invitation to review any personal data we hold for you on our new church database, ChurchSuite.

Our Eco Contemplative Liturgy this month will be held on Sunday 25th April at 3pm on Zoom. 
​          
Please email ecochurch@sjp.org.uk in order to get the Zoom link and liturgy sheet. Those attending regularly will receive an email with the details.

'The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.' Thomas Berry
​
​If you are in the fortunate position of having some outside space, please do Zoom from outside, or from a window/door with a view. Alternatively, you might like to collect a leaf, flower, stone or shell before the liturgy. Participants will be invited to speak about their experience in their garden, view or object if they would like to.  
​
The session will be open from 2.50pm. Arriving before 3.00pm will enable any glitches with audio or video to be sorted.  You are welcome to stay a while afterwards to chat with others. We are especially interested in more sustainable ways of living that you have adopted. 

We've had a supportive listening and counselling service on site for over 30 years. The pandemic has meant that in-person counselling has been replaced by phone and Zoom sessions, and that the service is busier than ever.
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This service is provided by the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education. The Caravan Co-ordinator, Ian Burton, has kindly allowed us to share an article here that he wrote for the in house CCPE journal about the closure of the Caravan in the first lockdown and how the service has adapted.

The Caravan phone counselling service is currently offered from Mon-Fri 11am-7pm, and Sat-Sun 10am-7pm on  020 7183 1802 and is open to all.

Click here to read our Weekly Update including two films celebrating St James's cultural heritage which will be launched at midday on Thursday 15th April. The Update also includes important information regarding migration to a new church database!

We are deeply saddened to learn news of the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.

Many will stand today with their thoughts, prayers, and memories in deepest sympathy with Her Majesty The Queen, and with members of the Royal Family. 


There will be time to mark the occasion and offer our condolences formally. For now, we offer our prayers for the Royal Family and for the generation that will grieve the passing of His Royal Highness. 

May he rest in peace and rise in glory. 

A message from the Bishop of London
Bishop Sarah has recorded a video message, which can be seen on the Diocesan website here.

Service at St Paul’s cathedral
A special Choral Evensong will be broadcast tomorrow (Saturday 10th April) at 5.00pm on BBC Radio 3. Bishop Sarah will give the Blessing. The Cathedral will be closed all day and there will be no congregation at the service.

Condolence book
The Church of England has opened an online condolence book here. This is open to any who wish to sign and record a message.
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9th April 2021

We're delighted to announce the launch of two films celebrating the cultural heritage of St James's Church, Piccadilly.

​Featuring the work of woodcarver Grinling Gibbons and poet William Blake, ​the films have been made possible with support from the National Lottery Heritage fund.

                                                                       Click on the image (above) to view the film.
                         
​​The first film, Grinling Gibbons the Michelangelo of Woodcarving features the incomparable reredos at St James's along with the font and organ case. Gibbons is probably England’s most famous woodcarver of all time.  From 1671 to 1721 he molded and shaped wood into the most memorable creations. His trademark baroque sculptures are instantly recognisable: a cascade of  flowers, fruits, leaves, fish and birds that captivate the viewer with their intricacy.

In an exceptional career, Gibbons was appointed as master carver to George I and William III and collaborated with Sir Christopher Wren on numerous projects focusing on architectural decoration. His work can be seen at Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, St Paul’s Cathedral, the National Trust’s Petworth House and St James’s Church, Piccadilly. 
 
Here at St James’s in central London, we have three unique examples of Gibbons’ work: a marble font (where William Blake was baptised), a limewood reredos and an organ case. To explore the power of these sculptures, St James’s has filmed curators, a sculptor, a woodcarver and a master carver discussing Gibbons' enduring legacy in the 21st century.

Join leading curators from the Wallace Collection, Royal Academy and Victoria and Albert Museum for a film about England’s most eminent woodcarver. ​

Contributors to the film:
 
Ada de Wit Curator of Works of Art and Sculpture, the Wallace Collection and author of Grinling Gibbons and the Golden Age of Woodcarving
​Hugh Wedderburn Master carver and Master Carvers Association Honourable Secretary
Rebecca Lyons Director of Learning and Collections at the Royal Academy
Kira d’Alburquerque Sculptor Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Gerry Judah Artist
Sophie Sellu Woodcarver, Founder of Grain and Knot
​Nick Humphrey Furniture Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum

BLAKE NOW is a film about the radical and visionary poet William Blake, his city of London and his city of the imagination.

Blake was baptised at St James's Church, Piccadilly in 1757 and lived most of his life in nearby Soho.
​

Click on the image (left) to view the film.

Blake's poem London is still as shocking and visceral as ever.  First published in Songs of Innocence and Experience over 200 years ago, Blake’s anger and outrage infuses every word and every image. Having lived in the capital most of his life, and at a time of great political and social upheaval, his poem is a damning portrayal of eighteenth century London.  

St James’s Church, in partnership with the Poetry Society, has invited five contemporary poets - Sophie Herxheimer, Joseph Coelho, Ankita Saxena, Ruth Awolola and Natalie Linh Bolderston – to reflect on Blake and his relevance now. The film will be launched here at midday on Thurs 15th April.
 
St James’s Church, Piccadilly, is a space to reflect, debate and create in central London. We offer a cultural programme of talks, discussion, events and programmes that support the artists, creators and debaters of tomorrow.

Click here to read our Weekly News Update, including live streamed lunchtime recitals, our Eco Church series, Rooted in God's Earth, and an article written by the Caravan Counselling Service Co-ordinator, Ian Burton.
​

Rooted in God’s Earth
Sunday 11th April 2021 at 3pm on Zoom
 
Session Three: Water
Led by Dr Lisa Barrott
​
This is part of a series of monthly Eco Church events in the run up to the International Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November 2021 (COP26). These sessions will include short excerpts from talks by experts, opportunity for reflection and discussion, ideas for action and suggestions for follow-up.
          
‘In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.’

​Water is part of our daily lives and we interact with water in a multitude of ways: from rivers and puddles, clouds and oceans, taking a shower and boiling the kettle.  We drink water every day and yet the world behind this everyday miracle goes on unobserved.  

​This session will be an opportunity to reflect on how we interact with water in our lives and hear about how drinking water arrives at our taps. Plenty of links for us to follow up will be supplied.
 
Email ecochurch@sjp.org.uk for the Zoom link for this session.