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We offer daily services and a cultural programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
Revd Dr Ayla Lepine met with curator and art historian Alayo Akinkugbe for a conversation about justice, beauty and hope expressed in Che Lovelace’s paintings and Cugoano’s memorial.
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 cultural 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 Claire Wright, Assistant Churchwarden, as she shares her experience of liberation theology in Honduras.
These drawings are taken from a book about women’s health, written by the women of the Proyecto de Desarrollo Integral de la Parroquia de Gracias, Lempira, Honduras in 1994.
The woman on the left is triste or sad, and the woman on the right is happy. Her family, doesn’t have problems, because she is ‘organized’!
I worked in Honduras, in the early 1990’s, with the women who wrote the book, who were campesinas, from some of the poorest and most marginalized communities not just in Honduras, but in Latin America.
Life was not easy but my memories of them is as much of laughter and companionship as was of hard work and struggle. The project had it’s roots in liberation theology. It was the people’s project and at it’s core was the belief that Jesus was very much on their side as they took action to improve the lives of their families and their communities. Jesus wanted liberation for them in this world as well as salvation in the next.
They worshipped together, held workshops on agriculture, health and the bible, ran a small loans scheme, took on a big logging corporation, and so on. Some impressive leaders with powerful voices emerged including those of Dionisia and Servelia who drew the pictures at the top of the page. The project was part of the local Catholic church however it wasn’t an NGO with a pointy roof but a living, vibrant, by no means perfect, community project with Jesus as it’s heart.
There’s a world of difference between the parish of Gracias in rural Lempira in 1994, and St James’s Church Piccadilly in Central London in 2022, but actually the people aren’t so very different, and it’s the same Jesus.
We might live in a wealthier society but it’s one where inequalities are growing, and where people who are poor and marginalised also struggle to be heard and have a real say in the things that concern them.
Being part of an organization like Citizens UK is just one way we can make a difference. Today, 30th September 2022, some of us are Taking Action on the Living Wage for Health and Social Care Workers outside the Houses of Parliament. We’ll let you know how we get on!
