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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
Wednesday 20 August 1.10pm
Yang Yang (b. 1998) began her piano studies at the age of five with Noor Relijk and later continued her education under the tutelage of renowned professor Jan Wijn.
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.
We host a year-round creative programme encompassing music, visual art and spoken word.
We offer hospitality to people going through homelessness and speak out on issues of injustice, especially concerning refugees, asylum, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues.
St James’s strives to advocate for earth justice and to develop deeper connections with nature.
We aim to be a place where you can belong. We have a unique history, and the beauty of our building is widely known. Our community commits to faith in action: social and environmental justice; creativity. and the arts
We strive to be a Eucharist-centred, diverse and inclusive Christian community promoting life in abundance, wellbeing and dignity for all.
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The work of St James’s, it costs us £5,000 per day to enable us to keep our doors open to all who need us.
A reimagined St James’s realised. A redesigned garden, courtyard and new building capacity—all fully accessible— will provide beautiful spaces for all as well as improving our environmental performance.
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St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
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PCC member and musician Ali Beck shares her story of getting adventurous with church worship music.
I’ve been singing in churches my whole life: a cocktail of traditional choral music and three-chords evangelical worship.
It was only after I moved to London 22 years ago, and had a random encounter with a Baptist minister and musician called Ewan King, that I realised church music could be surprising – even shocking – and more to the point, that this could help people encounter God in new ways.
It all started when Ewan said he wanted us to sing ‘Never Ever’ by 1990s girl group All Saints in one of his church services. ‘Errr, you must be joking!’, I said. I instinctively felt it was irreverent, inappropriate even, to sing a pop song as worship. Ewan patiently ignored my Anglican huffing and puffing and we sang the song anyway. To my amazement, the congregation loved it. It seemed to touch them deeply.
I quickly came to realise that all music springs from the divine, and that so-called ‘secular’ music used in worship has a special ability to open a hotline to God despite – or even because of – the lyrics having been written by everyday humans doing their best to cope. Just think of the raw cry of pain in the All Saints chorus and reframe it as a modern-day psalm: ‘Never ever have I ever felt so low / When you gonna take me out of this black hole?’
In Ewan’s church, at Greenbelt and even at St Paul’s Cathedral, we’ve sung jazz standards, traditional Americana songs from Appalachia, Finnish pop, original compositions, Bob Dylan songs, and American 1960s gospel revival music – to name just a few genres.
A few people have absolutely hated it. But many more have said things like “jawdropping”, “a considerable shock”, and “you connected me to God in a way that nothing else has”.
Since joining the congregation at St James’s 11 years ago, I’ve had the honour of singing at many of our Sunday services and also at Sanctuary on Tuesdays. I decided I would take inspiration from my friend Ewan – so I tried to choose music that I felt might channel the Holy Spirit in a different way from the Anglican norm. This has been a particular joy at Sanctuary, where we are given the freedom and responsibility of choosing whatever music we like.
To round off my story, here are my top five most memorable church music moments from the last 22 years. Some of these involve me, while others are videos of others doing church music in unexpected and lovely ways…
‘Joyful, Joyful’ at Middle Church in New York City
A few years ago, I stumbled across a video from one of their church services: a massed choir of amateur singers singing ‘Joyful, Joyful’ from Sister Act 2 with passion, warmth and joy. It isn’t a slick performance – and that’s sort of the point, I reckon. There’s a love-filled energy about this worship that gets me teary every time I watch it.
‘Gloria’ from Ike Sturm’s Jazz Mass
American jazz bassist Ike Sturm is a composer of sacred music that is uplifting, rhythmically adventurous, and balm for the soul. I love that he leaves a lot of space for the musicians to improvise – the trumpeter here seems to be soaring close to heaven during her solo.
‘Where Noone Stands Alone’ – performed by me and Lucy
We recorded this video in an empty church the day before the first lockdown of the pandemic. It is a cry of yearning for solace and comfort.
‘Pay the Musick’ – an EP of refreshingly odd original mass settings
With the aforementioned Ewan King, a group of us recorded an EP of mass settings written by Ewan and his collaborator James Cave. The EP is called ‘Pay the Musick’ and the unusual production was inspired by cult singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens.
‘Dance Me to the End of Love’ by Leonard Cohen
This song by the Canadian songwriter, singer, and poet is perhaps as much about God as it is human love. It has been described as embodying hope in the face of hopelessness.
On another subject – I’ve also been a member of the Parochial Church Council (PCC) for five years. Sadly, I’m stepping down from the PCC because I’m relocating to Scotland. I’d encourage anyone who cares about St James’s to consider standing to take my place on the PCC. It’s a wonderful opportunity to shape our future. Please chat to me if you want to hear more about what it’s like to serve on the PCC.
