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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.
Sunday 6 April 6.30pm St Pancras Church
Join the music scholars of St James’s, Piccadilly as they celebrate women composers throughout the ages.
Wednesday 16 April 6:30pm
In this special collaboration for Holy Week, St James’s Piccadilly brings together the music of composer Rachel Chaplin and spoken word presented by The Revd Lucy Winkett.
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 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.
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.
New walkways, a restored courtyard and re-landscaped gardens will provide fully accessible, beautiful spaces for everyone to enjoy as well as improving our environmental performance.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
Directions on Google Maps
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