The Big Give 2025

The Repair Shop

I was giving a talk recently and someone (a priest in the London Diocese) said in the Q and A that they thought of St James’s a bit like the TV programme ‘The Repair Shop’.  They said that in their mind, sometimes there wasn’t any other church that a person could bear except St James’s Piccadilly.  So this priest would send people here who were a bit – or a lot-  broken, and trust that St James’s would be a good place to pray and be for a while.

I have, in the past, described my experience of St James’s similarly in a way – a bit like a field hospital.  Given our location in central London where so many people are lost – and our strong-as-possible commitment to staying open and inclusive, this is a long standing vocation of this church: that you are accepted exactly as you are, and given the space to consider the reality that God pours out grace and love and unconditional acceptance upon you, made as you are in God’s image.  This is an amazing thing to be part of.

St James’s distinctive ethos is needed more than ever

If I may speak personally for a moment, I am the third Rector in this current phase of St James’s life.  Of course we’ve been here since 1684 and have a long and creative history. But it was the inspirational Donald Reeves who started us on this particular path in the late 1970s (I was privileged to be at his memorial service in St James’s earlier in the year). After him as rector came Charles Hedley, here for ten years in the early 2000s. Charles has given me permission to let our community know that he is now in a hospice and is comfortable; I am in close touch with him.  All three of us see ourselves as part of a continuum; to help St James’s community – you – be the radically welcoming community that our society needs, as we believe Jesus was radically welcoming.  To be rooted in our faith, in earth justice, in social justice, in inclusive community: to be rooted in our faith, yes but never to be trapped by doctrinaire exclusions of who’s ‘in’ and who’s ‘out’.  Human and beyond-human. A spirituality that affirms Christ at the heart of all Creation and is open to all.

In this week of the Big Give scheme, as we approach the end of the year, I could try to write something inspirational to persuade you of the worth of St James’s and then maybe try to persuade you to make a donation. But to be honest, if you value this community and the way St James’s wants to do church, you will give (and you do) of your time, energy, and money. If you don’t you won’t.

I’m not writing this to engender guilt or an eye-roll (they’re talking about money again…) or a worry (I can’t afford it but I should).  Please, absolutely, don’t make a donation of a size you think you can’t afford.  And if you can’t give of your resources, you can absolutely help by talking about St James’s, sharing our story and what we believe in.

But what I am saying as your priest, if I may speak personally for a little longer, is that of all the amazing privilege and challenge of being rector of St James’s (I feel immensely blessed even to be part of this church and all we are),  the ongoing finances is the thing I lose sleep over. It’s the subject that causes me personally the most stress and tension: whether St James’s can continually, year in year out, raise the funds it needs, to be the seven-day-a-week open church running the projects it cares about and building inclusive community that is so precious in a fractured and polarised world.  We don’t have any sort of endowment or historic funds that provides an income. We raise everything ourselves.

Building community is at the heart of what we do

Authentic Christian community centres on the broken-hearted celebration of the Eucharist. This sort of community is founded not on uniformity but in the character of this meal. And so we try to build a community rooted in celebration and forgiveness, love and prayer, encouraging in one another the bravery to contemplate the deepest things of life including our own life -and death- together.

When I think of even in the few years I have been part of this community, the coffins that have been laid here, the children that have been baptised here, the inspirational voices that have been given space here, the music that has been made here, the stories that have been told here from the last Ice Age and beyond, I can’t think of other forms of community that matter more in our current society as a community that knows both how to dance in the aisles and march on the streets. A community that is open to everyone. Without exception.

Here’s the sums…

The Big Give week is a crucial week for St James’s.  As we stand today, St James’s needs to raise £221k to break even in 2025.  Our aim for the Big Give match fund campaign is to raise a minimum of £100k (£50k match funded by the Big Give scheme).  This isn’t a limit but a target: anything given above this will be crucial too because……

After we’ve raised our match funding, we need another £121k to get us to break even at the end of the year. And so we are hosting the most fantastic Christmas season of gatherings, events and concerts, encouraging everyone who values St James’s to get involved.  Every single pound, five pounds, fifty pounds makes a huge difference.  Every single ticket bought, bottle of scent or wine, even the gin, the amazing Christmas cards by Yinka Ilori, every single donation, especially during this week, helps St James’s survive and thrive in extremely challenging times for churches and charities trying to make the world a more inclusive place.

Our staff colleagues are getting involved

We have a dedicated employed staff team at St James’s who work every day to keep the church open, safe, welcoming and secure, who liaise with a thousand different people coming for shelter or prayer, to eat or sleep, hirers, musicians, market traders, therapists, local businesses, grieving families, couples in love or many who are lonely in London’s crowds.  As our staff colleagues, raising funds to keep St James’s open is something they think about and work hard at every day.

Thank you

Thank you so very much for being part of this community.  Your presence, your time, energy, love and resource – all that you give – is never taken for granted. Please consider giving this particular week and ensuring your donation is doubled.

Your commitment matters not only to our community on a Sunday but to people you will never see, whose names you will never know, who didn’t know that church could be for them.

It’s for all of them – and for us – that we do this –

Thank you.