Saturday 29 February 12.00pm-4.00pm in the church hall at St James’s Church
St James's is a collective of people from all around the globe with different cultures, histories, and traditions. Join us for a fun filled afternoon to celebrate our heritages and share them with each other. Please bring something from your culture that you wish to share. This could be your favourite dish, perhaps it’s a story or folk tale, maybe it’s a dance or game. Whatever it is, we want to celebrate what makes us unique as well as how it can bring us together.

The PCC invites you to join the discussion on
all things St James’s in a World Café format with a simple lunch, lively conversation, and prayerful consideration of our future.

What is an ‘inclusive church’? How can we be more ‘adventurous’? How can we prepare well for the redevelopment project? Do we have our priorities right as a church? What about Planned Giving?
Join the discussion and have your say . . .

• Sunday 1 March 1.00pm-2.30pm: Mission
• Sunday 5 April 1.00pm-2.30pm: Place
• Sunday 24 May 1.00pm-2.30pm: Money
  
• Sunday 21 June 1.00pm-2.30pm: Space

A weekly space for prayer, readings and silence, throughout Lent.
Tuesday 3 March-Tuesday 7 April 2020
Download the booklet here or collect a copy in church

The Walking Boots Group - with sheep | Saturday 14 March 2020
A walk through Surrey heathland from Witley station to Milford and Godalming – 10 miles or so
 
Rob writes: From Witley station, we take the undulating Greensand Way and then up through National Trust common land to Milford.  Again, David Cox is kindly offering lunch, this time in the company of sheep. After lunch, we find our way through fields, villages and past a convent to Godalming’s commuter-land. A few short but steep stretches. Bring morning snacks in case of a late lunch. Lunch close to Milford station means the afternoon walk is optional.  Boots or strong shoes essential.
 
Meet near the entrance to Platform 12 at Waterloo station on Saturday 14 March at 9 am, having bought an off-peak day return ticket to Witley, to catch the 9:15am train to Guildford. From Guildford, a replacement bus service will take us to Witley.  Please let Rob - rob@hullonline.org - know if you’re coming, to inform David’s catering.

This is just one of hundreds of comments made as part of the PCC's survey of our community, friends and contacts. Thank you to everyone who responded.  See the report, here

We are saddened to hear of the death of Margarita, who has been associated with St James's over many years. She previously served as a member of the PCC and as Treasurer.  We send our condolences to her family. 
May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

The funeral took place at St James's on Saturday 15 February 2020

Camino Companions 2020-21 ‘The Way of St James’ for every day
Every Wednesday during Lent 6.00pm-8.30pm | All welcome
Following eight years of our popular Camino Course, we now invite anyone who would like to, to develop with us a longer-term companionship, travelling with Christ and walking with each other. Centered around silence and a simple celebration of the Eucharist, followed by a chance to talk, becoming a companion along the Way for each other will give us a chance to deepen existing friendships and make new ones. Each week’s format:

• 6.00pm tea and coffee available
  
• 6.30pm silence in church
• 7.00pm Eucharist
  
• 7.30pm small group activity, Scripture,
• discussion, life journey
  
• 8.20pm closing prayers
• 8.30pm depart

Camino Companions leaflets with full details and registration forms can be found on the table in the prayer corner

Our very own Joyce Henderson has adapted and directed this performance of Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson.

Click image to enlarge.

Viist Theatre Peckham for more, and booking link.

The Gospel of John:
The Book of Signs and wonders
Each Sunday until 23 February 2020, you are
invited to come and get to know the most
mysterious and symbolic of the gospels.

Gospel Conversations will take place in the church hall
from 9.20am (for coffee and croissants) for a prompt 9.30am start. They will finish at 10.30am in time for the Eucharist at 11.00am. Each week, we will read and discuss parts of the Gospel of John in small groups,  reading Scripture with ‘heart, head and feet’. Please talk to Lucy Winkett or Debbie O’Brien if you would like to know more. You’ll find a sign-up sheet on the table in the prayer corner … or just turn up!

Hope, Prayer and Climate Change. A Lent workshop
led by Peter and Ruth Musgrave on Sunday 15 March 2020, 1.30 - 3.30
 
A workshop organised by the Eco Church at St James’s Piccadilly. The aims of the event are

• to acknowledge and explore our despair, grief, lament and hope amidst climate breakdown;
  
• to give participants the chance to share their own involvement in working for healing of the
  earth;
  
• to find ways of expressing hope in the face of the seemingly impossible task of stopping climate breakdown through the practice of prayer/meditation

Download the flyer | This event is free: please book by emailing ecochurch@sjp.org.uk

Would you like to be baptised or confirmed this Easter?
During Lent each year, members of St James’s Church follow a short course of preparation and are then baptised or confirmed at St Paul’s Cathedral. If you’re thinking about doing this, please speak to The Revd Daniel Norris after the service this morning. Alternatively, you can express your interest by emailing the parish secretary, David Hamilton-Peters at secretary@sjp.org.uk. Daniel will be leading a weekly confirmation preparation group on Sundays during Lent at 1.05pm. The confirmation service itself is on Saturday 11 April at 6.00pm at St Paul’s Cathedral. If you’ve already been baptised (in any Christian denomination) then you can be confirmed, and if you have not been baptised (christened) then you would be baptised and confirmed at the same time.

Introduction For 8 years, St James’s Church has developed and run the ‘Camino course’, a 12 week course meeting fortnightly on a Wednesday evening from Advent (December) to Ascension (May). Named after the Camino pilgrimage route in Spain, Camino (meaning ‘pathway’) is a chance for up to 25 people at a time to get to know each other, learn, discuss, pray, and explore their faith in an open and inclusive spirit.

Because of demand, it has not been possible for participants to repeat the course and the desire has been expressed for more opportunities to travel together through life’s adventures and challenges as a congregation and community.

Camino Companions We invite anyone who would like to, to develop with us a longer term companionship, travelling with Christ and walking with each other. Centred around silence and a simple celebration of the Eucharist, followed by a chance to talk, becoming a companion along the Way for each other will give us a chance to deepen existing friendships and make new ones. The word ‘companion’ means ‘one we break bread with’, giving expression to the prayer we say every Sunday ‘we are all one body because we all share in one bread’ (Click 'Read More')

John, who is to join the clergy team as St James's as Associate Rector, writes:  "At the start of Advent 2012, I first joined the congregation at St James's. I was a human rights lawyer and university lecturer, fresh from six months in Alcoholics Anonymous, which had triggered a massive Christian conversion. I arrived bewildered by what was happening to me, awkward and self-conscious, and kept bursting into tears whenever the Eucharist was being celebrated. And St James's welcomed me with open arms. I started confirmation preparation, which was fantastic, but I had a nagging sense there was something more. Within a couple of months I went to Lucy and blurted out 'I think I'm meant to become a priest!' Instead of laughing and telling me it would wear off (as I imagined she would), she wanted to know more about the story of my life and what I knew of God and we began ordination discernment. Since then I've spent a year as a parish assistant in Manchester; three years living with the monks in Mirfield, West Yorkshire; and three years serving as a curate in Chelsea. It's a glorious surprise to be coming back to St James's as a priest and I look forward to meeting old friends and making new ones. As I began training, important people told me that St James's Piccadilly wasn't very 'representative' of the Church of England. Seven years later, I can confidently affirm they are entirely correct! But I wish it wasn't like that so I am coming back to immerse myself in St James's and its people and learn all about the hidden wiring and secret ingredients in the hope I might carry some of that forward into whatever God has in store for me next."

27/10/2019, Hugh writes: "I shall be leaving St James’s on 26 January 2020 after more than twenty seven years here as one of its clergy, and thirty years after my ordination (is that possible? It seems like yesterday).  I have been something of an irregular cleric, in so far as I have viewed working full-time in the so-called secular world as the principal focus of my life as a priest. (If anyone is interested in a short explanation of this, I’ve posted something at www.passingthrough.uk/leavingchurch).

For a long time I’ve thought that because my vocation arose within the context of my paid work (I have tried to follow the model of the worker-priest), then once I stop that, it will be the time to quit as an active priest licensed to a parish. To my mind there is a logic in this, and more importantly, a faithfulness to my vocation as I have understood it all these years. I expect to retire from paid (secular) work in two to three years' time.  The reason for this step now, and ahead of that, is because to finish both full time paid work and my active work as a priest in a parish at the same time would be more of a major change than I want, or need, to experience. Both spheres have been very important ones to me, and, crucially, they have been spheres in dialogue with one another.  My time at St James’s has been, for me, a truly wonderful and hugely stimulating time. I am more grateful for this than I can say."

Hugh will be the preacher on Sunday 19 January 2020 and the celebrant on his last Sunday, 26 January 2020

News update (click 'read more') As some of you know, the West London Day Centre closed its drop-in service at Seymour Place,  over the summer, for a complete refurbishment. In early Autumn they took a decision no longer to be the organisation which refers people to our Westminster Winter Shelter.

We're delighted to welcome Sarah Howard-Jones, an Ordinand in her first year training at Ripon College Cuddesdon. The College has recently developed a different way of training priests. Ordinands spend two years embedded in a parish, alongside being at college. Sarah will be with us at St James's for two days a week (Sundays and Thursdays) for two years. Sarah writes:..."I am delighted to be joining the congregation and wider community of St James's.  As a lifelong Londoner, I feel a connection with St James's through playing in chamber music concerts here, being inspired by the visible and generous missional activity of the church, and knowing the church itself as a place in W1 to step into to sit and pray.  I look forward to many conversations with you all over time and hearing about things that are part of God's witness here, both seen and less seen.  For the past 18 years I've worked 20 minutes walk down the road, as a civil servant in central government in quite a number of social policy areas.  I've lived and worshipped across London over time, at Southwark Cathedral and at All Saints Fulham.  I now live in zone 4 of west London, with my two children and overseen by our cat."

In 1788, St James's purchased land close to the present-day Euston Station as an additional burial ground. It was in use from 1790 to 1853. It is now to be built over as part of the HS2 extension to Euston Station. Read more here

21 July 2019
Some news from Lindsay

UPDATE: Lindsay's last St James's Sunday will be 15 September. Please join us, after the 11am service, for a party to thank her for her enormous contribution to the life of St James’s.

"After very nearly 14 years serving on the clergy team here at St James’s, the time has finally come for me to move on. Many will know that during my time in London, theatre chaplaincy has become a real passion of mine. Beginning in October, as a 3-year pilot project with London Diocese, I will be pursuing theatre chaplaincy full-time. My final Sunday at St James’s will be mid-September – date to be confirmed. For most of the last 14 years, I’ve found it very hard to imagine leaving St James’s, or what on earth you go on to do after being on the clergy team here, so amidst the inevitable sadness of leaving, I feel extremely blessed and a real surge of joy at being called to -  and given -  such an exciting new opportunity.

I’m also excited and delighted that St James's can look forward – in time – to welcoming a new, enthusiastic and energetic Associate Rector to do great things. The successful candidate will be one of the luckiest priests in the Church of England!"

Our many church community events often involve preparing and serving food and in a bid to make this run even more smoothly, we are developing a pool of volunteers. Would this interest you?

Your level of commitment is entirely up to you - from twice a year to once a month, from chopping carrots to overseeing the catering for an event … it's entirely up to you - we welcome anyone who would like to serve our community in this way.

Training opportunities will be provided for those who want to get more involved.
Please contact kitchen@sjp.org.uk to express an interest

The Southwood Garden at St James’s has, once again, been recognised by the Green Flag Award Scheme as one of the best in the world. This international award, now into its third decade, is a sign to the public that the space boasts the highest possible environmental standards, is beautifully maintained and has excellent visitor facilities.

Congratulations to our gardener, Catherine Tidnam, and to all involved with the upkeep of our beautiful and sustainable garden. The Green Flag Awards Scheme is run by the Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, under licence from the Department of Communities and Local Government

How can we help? We have a group of pastoral visitors who are happy to visit people in hospital or at home, or to telephone those who may be some distance away or appreciate a chat from time to time.
If you, or someone you know in the congregation, would appreciate a visit or phone call, then please
contact Joan Ishibashi by email or speak to her at church.

We are currently recruiting volunteers to join our Sunday morning hospitality team. If you’d like to join the ‘Intentional Coffee’ rota, please speak to Fiona Notman after the morning service.

Ilse Boas was an active member of St James's for many years before moving into residential care in North London. She was serious minded in many ways, and often raised serious questions. She was fun, too, and gentle. Her mother had suffered from dementia; Ilse had cared for her and went on to establish the Barnet Alzheimers Society.  As a child, she had arrived in Britain from Germany on the Kindertransport. Later she worked as an administrator at the LSE.

Below are some pictures I had taken of her over the years, including one where she appeared unexpectedly from behind the St James' font when I was trying to photograph it. It rather captures, delightfully in my view, Ilse's curious, serious yet always detached engagement with Christianity. She had reason to view all ideologies with a degree of scepticism. Hugh Valentine

• Committal Monday 3 June 2019 at 4pm: Enfield Crematorium, North Chapel
  
• Thanksgiving Thursday 6 June 2019 at 12.30pm, St James's Church 197 Piccadilly
  Script of eulogy here