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 The pandemic has meant that in-person counselling has been replaced by phone and Zoom sessions, and that the service is busier than ever.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.
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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.
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Rooted in God’s Earth
Sunday 11th April 2021 at 3pm on Zoom
 
Session Three: Water
Led by Dr Lisa Barrott
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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.

Join master carver, Hugh Wedderburn, in this online practical session on decorative woodcarving.
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Are you interested in developing a new hobby that is relaxing and fun?
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Woodcarving is one of our the oldest art forms. It absorbs the mind and can often develop into a life-long passion. Hugh Wedderburn, who is a master carver with over 40 years of experience, will be running a zoom session on decorative woodcarving. This practical pre-recorded one-hour zoom session will cover:

Hugh’s rich career as a woodcarver 
The tools required for decorative woodcarving
Methods for decorative woodcarving
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Hugh will be using Grinling Gibbons' work as a stimulus for this workshop. Gibbons is one of the most famous British woodcarvers in history and is celebrated here at St James's as the creator of our exquisite reredos (altar screen) as well as the organ casing and marble font. From 1671 to 1721 he crafted wood into the most memorable creations. His trademark baroque sculptures are instantly recognisable: a cascade of flowers, fruits, leaves, fish, birds, and shells that captivate the viewer with their intricacy.

​The Zoom session was recorded at St James's and will be available for unlimited viewing from 10am on 8th May. Click the eventbrite link here to book tickets.

A zoom link will be sent to you prior to the workshop.
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Click here to read our Weekly News Update, including Holy Week and Easter services, Soul at Saint James on Sunday 4th April, and our AFTERMATH: weeds & wilding project.

Click here to read our Weekly Update, including Holy Week and Easter services, our AFTERMATH project, and live streamed lunchtime recitals.

​While community organising is most often associated with creating campaigns and actions aimed at power-holders outside member organisations, it is often most powerfully used within member organisations in developing new leaders, helping people discover and use their talents, and creating a relational culture where we develop deeper relationships with one another.
 
Together with other Westminster Citizens organisations, St James's is taking part in further training about how to effectively use Citizens within our organisation. This will be a 5 session training course on Sunday afternoons from 4pm-5.30pm, once a month (with breaks in June and August)

​We want to build a small team of people from St James's who will commit to starting and completing this course together. We will meet once a month for 90 minutes of training and reflection, and then agree how to put the tools we’ve learnt into practice at St James's.

Other Westminster member organisations are all joining the training, with their own teams. All of the training sessions will be on Zoom, except for 14 November, which we hope to be everyone together in person!
 
Anyone is very welcome to register their interest in this course but please note that places are limited and we will give priority to people from the groups from which we are particularly keen to develop future leaders at St James's, which are younger people and people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. 

If you're interested in this course, and you're available on each of the 5 dates, then please email John.

All Holy Week and Easter services and events will be live streamed on our YouTube channel here.

​Although some restrictions are still in place, please do join us in-person if you can travel safely. Tickets must be booked in advance and please remember to wear a face-covering.
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●  Eucharist for Palm Sunday    ​
Sun 28th March at 11am​
Although we won’t have a procession or donkey this year, we’ll hear the Passion Gospel, and bless the palm crosses as usual. Book HERE

●  Silence and Eucharist - ​Tues 30th March at 6pm – continuing on Zoom for the time being.
​Please email David at secretary@sjp.org.uk for a Zoom invitation. 

●  Music for Holy Week - Wed 31st March at 1.10pm. Michael Haslam (piano)
St James's Director of Music presents a contemplative programme of works by JS Bach.
Online only - click here from 1.10pm to watch the live stream on our YouTube channel

●  Maundy Thursday Eucharist - Thurs 1st April at 6.30pm & Watch of Prayer until 10pm. Book HERE

●  Good Friday The Three Hours -  Fri 2nd April 12noon-3pm. Book HERE. Service sheet here.

●  Holy Saturday Evening Prayer - Sat 3rd April at 6.30pm. Online only - click here for the live stream. Service sheet here.

●  Easter Day Dawn Eucharist - Sun 4th April at 6.30am in the garden. Book HERE. Service sheet here

●  Eucharist for Easter Day​ - Sun 4th April at 11am. Sorry, there's no availability for this service as we've reached our full capacity. Service sheet here.

Click here to read our Weekly Update, including Holy Week and Easter services, and a new weekly indoor socially-distanced meal called FEAST for people experiencing homelessness.

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Imploded, burnt, turned to ash, 2021'
​Mon 15th March at 5pm

This live streamed drawing and sound performance by the Syrian-born and Cambridge-based artist Issam Kourbaj marks the tenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising – a crisis that resulted in violent armed conflict and ongoing civil war. Kourbaj’s performance will take place on the 15th March, the first day of the unrest a decade ago.

Please click here for a link to the live stream​.

The artist describes his project here:

To mark the tenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, which was sparked by teenage graffiti in March 2011, this drawing performance will pay homage to those young people who dared to speak their mind, the masses who protested publicly, as well as the many Syrian eyes that were, in the last ten years, burnt and brutally closed forever.

​I will draw fragments of Arabic words and eye idols on a large surface in layers, repeating and obscuring them beyond all legibility and recognition. It will become a palimpsest of these two elements, the first is inspired by the graffiti that was quickly erased even before it was completed, and the second is based on three Syrian eye idols from the collections of The Fitzwilliam Museum, made of alabaster and dating to around 3200 BC, excavated at Tell Brak, Syria, in a building now called the Eye Temple.

I will then burn the final drawing and place the remaining ash in a glass box. This will be exhibited in a sacred space to memorialise every victim of the last decade, while also being dedicated to all Syrians lost, displaced and still suffering from this ongoing crisis.

Towards the end of the performance, the viewer will hear words written by myself, set to music by renowned composer Richard Causton (Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge) and sung by soprano Jessica Summers.

This project is a collaboration between the artist, Kettle’s Yard, The Heong Gallery and The Fitzwilliam Museum (all part of the University of Cambridge). A major exhibition of the artist’s work will be presented by Kettle’s Yard and The Heong Gallery in 2023. The three eye idols from the collections of The Fitzwilliam Museum can be seen in a display alongside 366 eye idols created by Issam Kourbaj from Aleppo Soap when the Museum reopens in May.

Click here to read our Weekly Update including the re-opening of the church for public worship on Sun 7th March.

‘For such a time as this’
Our Vision for St James's - Sun 28th Feb at 12noon
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Join us for a Special Sunday Forum after the 11am Eucharist on Sunday 28th February to hear more about the results of the ‘Unlock’ consultation 2020, the new vision statement, visual identity, what we are doing with the grants we’ve received and our plans for the future. 
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There's plenty of time for a Q&A too. Everyone welcome!  

​The Zoom meeting opens directly after the Sunday service has ended: Click here for the Zoom link. Meeting ID: 812 8848 2895 | Passcode: 297754. Find your local dial-in number here. ​

Click here to read our Weekly Update including news of a special Sunday Forum meeting on 28th Feb.

​Our Contemplative Liturgy this month will be held on Sunday 28th January at 3pm on Zoom. 
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​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.  
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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. 
 
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.

Words for the Wilderness
Soft Words for Hard Times

Words for the Wilderness is Theatre Chaplaincy UK's 2021 Lent programme. Each Wednesday in Lent (until 31st March) a new video will be released on their YouTube channel here featuring a wonderful actor reading a poem chosen to reflect not just the themes of Lent, but also of the pandemic.

Readers include Rakie Ayola, Samantha Bond, Sheila Hancock, and Giles Terera.

Each poem feeds into Late Night Lent - half an hour of candlelit contemplation with stillness and silence and an Afternoon Discussion Group every Friday from 2.30-3.30pm on Zoom.
Email theatrechaplain@gmail.com for the Zoom invitation.

Click here to watch The Revd Lindsay Meader's introduction to Words for the Wilderness.
Click to here to watch Samantha Bond reading Lent by Jean M. Watt

Pictures l to r: Rakie Ayola, Samantha Bond, Sheila Hancock, Giles Terera

Click here to read our Weekly Update including Ash Wednesday Eucharist at 6.30pm tonight (17th Feb), Lent Contemplative Space, and Lent Study Course.

Today, in marking Racial Justice Sunday, St James’s clergy team states its  support of and welcome for Revd Jarel Robinson-Brown, soon to be a curate in the Two Cities Area.  As a diverse group ourselves, we affirm the importance of a White majority church standing up for its Black clergy. We recognise the theological critique Jarel has offered and we condemn without reservation the racist and homophobic abuse that he has suffered.  We are called not only to preach but to live the Gospel of social justice as embodied in Jesus. We hold in prayer all in positions of leadership and influence, as we pledge to work together for structural and systemic change. In recognising that words are not enough, we will actively seek ways to join the movement of the Holy Spirit in dismantling assumptions, practices and institutional mechanisms that perpetuate racial injustice in our Church and society, acknowledging that this work begins with us. 

The Reverend Lucy Winkett
The Reverend Dr John Russell
The Reverend Dr Mariama Ifode-Blease
The Reverend Dr Ivan Khovacs
The Reverend Daniel Norris 

​Lent Contemplative Space
19th Feb - 26 Mar: Mon, Wed, Fri

A regular space for prayer, readings and silence on Zoom. Please email David at secretary@sjp.org.uk for the invitation.
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Each session will be facilitated by a member of the St James’s Church community and will include a welcome, guided silence, a scripture reading, a poem, a prayer, and time to share reflections. 

​Download the resources here.