Search...
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
From Sun 6 to 27 April
Breastplate will be displayed behind the altar of the Side Chapel and lit from below so that it glows from within, thereby revealing its feather-filled fragility and the talismanic contents of its pockets.
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.
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.
Whether shooting a blockbuster TV series or creating a unique corporate event, every hire at St James’s helps our works within the community.
St James's Church 197 Piccadilly London W1J 9LL
Directions on Google Maps
In his Holy Week reflection, Revd Daniel Norris invites us to journey slowly through Jesus’ final days, embracing the pain, love, and hope of the story as a call to courageous compassion, inclusive community, and transformative love in our world today.
Holy Week is a sacred invitation. It asks us not only to remember the final days of Jesus’ life, but to step into the story ourselves—to walk the path with him, and to allow it to shape our hearts and our witness in the world.
In the city, where life moves fast and distractions are many, it can be difficult to slow down. But Holy Week is not a time for rushing. It is a time for presence—for paying attention to pain, to love, to silence, and ultimately to hope.
Palm Sunday begins with a strange kind of celebration. Jesus enters Jerusalem not as a conquering king but as a humble servant, riding a donkey. The crowd shouts “Hosanna,” but their expectations will soon be disappointed. Jesus is not here to seize power but to lay it down. His is a love that disrupts, challenges, and includes in ways that make the powerful uneasy.
As the week unfolds, we see Jesus gather with his friends around a table—breaking bread, washing feet, teaching a love that holds even through betrayal. Maundy Thursday reminds us that true leadership looks like service, and true community holds space for the broken and the breaking.
Good Friday confronts us with the reality of injustice. Jesus, the innocent one, is condemned by the systems of empire and religion alike. He is executed publicly, a spectacle of cruelty. And yet, in this darkest moment, love does not vanish. Jesus speaks forgiveness. He offers companionship even from the cross. He never stops loving.
Holy Saturday is often overlooked, but it is deeply important. It is the space of not-knowing, the in-between time where hope feels hidden. For many in our world—and in our own lives—this day resonates deeply. It is the silence after loss, the waiting for justice, the long pause before new life.
And then, Easter. Light in the darkness. Life that death could not hold. But even this resurrection does not erase the wounds. The risen Christ still bears the marks of crucifixion. The pain is not denied—but it is transformed.
For our inclusive, justice-seeking community, Holy Week speaks powerfully. It reminds us that the Christian story is not one of escape from suffering, but of presence within it—of God’s solidarity with the marginalised, the grieving, the oppressed. In a world where exclusion, violence, and fear still wound so many, Holy Week calls us to a different way: the way of courageous compassion, embodied solidarity, and resurrecting love.
This week, let us journey slowly and honestly. Let us hold space for lament, for questions, and for awe. And let us trust that love—real love, costly love, inclusive love—is never wasted. It is, and always has been, the path to life.
