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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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Sunday 24 March 2.30pm
Professor Audrey Osler draws on stories from her mixed-heritage family to explore ideas around migration, identity and belonging.
St James’s aspires to be a place where all can belong, and where every person’s gifts and identities are welcome and celebrated. We are working to improve the experience at St James’s in the church building and the online community. We have step-free access from the courtyard to the church, and a toilet for disabled people. The courtyard and Redemption Roasters coffee shop are wheelchair accessible. If you have special access requirements (e.g. wheelchair users) please contact concerts@sjp.org.uk
St James’s Church welcomes donations, whether £5 or any amount you’re able to give. Donations can be made in cash in the basket on your way out, or by tap donation at the machines at our exits. Your generosity helps support our cultural events and charitable services. Thank you.
For people of colour the questions “Where Are You From? No, Where Are You Really From?” often imply more than simple curiosity. They are political questions of identity, since the assumption (naive or aggressive) is that to be British and to belong you must be white. Whether or not we trace our families from beyond the shores of Britain, British people deserve a better understanding of our shared past, and opportunities to explore and recognise the complexities and contractions of empire. As Audrey Osler says: “The stories I tell here reveal as much about Britain as they do about the countries of the British Empire. This is not just my history, it elucidates the largely untold history of a nation and of its citizens, both people of colour and white.”
Audrey Osler continues: “I am delighted to be invited to St James’s Piccadilly to present ‘Where Are You From? No, Where Are You Really From?’, for this was where my great, great, great-grandfather Thiruvenkatam was baptised on 3 August 1789. A young Tamil, and still in his teens, he had already led an eventful life. He had escaped war, been abducted, and then enslaved on an East India Company ship. He arrived in London a free man and took the name William Roberts. Unfortunately, William’s baptismal celebrations were short-lived, for they caused him to lose his job and end up destitute in a strange city. His story, and that of every subsequent generation of my family, is set against the backdrop of the British Empire, elucidating aspects of that history over 200 years.”
Audrey will be interviewed by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Books will be available to buy and Audrey will be signing copies.
“Timely, affecting, and so darn necessary at this moment.” Philippe Sands
