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We offer daily services and a creative programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate.
Come and celebrate the hope and light that Christmas brings each winter
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 creative 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
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Wednesday 17 April 6.30pm
Explore the significance of poetry in today’s world through a discussion of specific poems, featuring speakers Mark Oakley & Diane Pacitti.
Diane Pacitti’s recent poems seek to deepen our vision of reality through a precise response to the natural world. Collaborating with a scientist and an artist, she writes for Earth Justice projects at St James’s Piccadilly. After gaining the Bronte Poetry Prize, she produced the collection Dark Angelic Mills during a Poetry Residency in Bradford. Guantanamo, a publication produced with her artist husband Antonio Pacitti, was praised by Harold Pinter.
The Very Rev’d Dr Mark Oakley is Dean of Southwark. Formerly Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, he is a respected speaker and author of books on the relationship between spirituality and poetry, including The Splash of Words: Believing in Poetry which was awarded the international Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing. @CanonOakley
What is the point of poetry in such a precarious world, at a time when so much we value is being threatened?
Is poetry something difficult that most people leave others to enjoy?
Or it something more vital and urgent, a ’soul language’ for a time when religious language often doesn’t resonate?
Our speakers will approach these questions through the experience of particular poems.
Mark Oakley’s books include The Splash of Words described by the former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as ‘this beautiful and wise meditation centred around the soul language of poetry’.
Diane Pacitti’s work includes the collection Dark Angelic Mills and poems written for Earth Justice projects at St James’s Piccadilly.