Les-b-in the house of the Lord!

By Sal Kovech

Volume 1, Issue 1

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Here I am, a young, gay Christian and new resident in London, looking for love in the house of the Lord (Gods love of course!!)

So a plan forms in my mind - I will travel the streets of London in search of an inclusive, gay-friendly church where I feel I can worship and find some kind of peace. I will be ably helped in this process by an assortment of friends and fellow ylgc-ers but I must stress that the comments and thoughts I have are entirely my own, are not meant to be taken in offense by anyone and my views will not necessarily be shared with you all. This can act as a guide or simply as an (hopefully) amusing account of my travels each Sunday.

July 29th 2001 - St. James's Piccadilly

Set in the heart of the West End close to Piccadilly Circus tube, this spacious, airy church offers a light, warm welcome to visitors. We chose St. James's day to visit the church; perhaps not the best choice as everything was very patronal and nautical (James being a fisherman). The service in itself was high Anglican, featured much inclusive politically correct language, but I did feel that in places it dragged. As a long-term member of high churches, I understand the rituals - acolytes, priests in full dress, but for those not used to this, they would find it alien and could worry about whether they were doing the right thing. A particular example being that of following the priest/bible where ever he/it goes. Amy had a lot of trouble with this and spent most of the service disentangling her legs from the strap of her bag!

The music was a high point of the morning - Mozart's Missa Brevis was sung exceptionally by a small choir called "Octopus" (that nautical theme again) and a nice selection of traditional hymns. However the drama group taking a net to the front and the small paper boats that we were asked to place around the altar just wasn't my kind of thing (we actually thought they were hats at first - simple mistake maybe!). At Communion, we were asked to come and stand around the altar. For those with poor legs or who like their privacy this again may not be to their taste. In fact it all seemed rather evangelical to me and maybe slightly out of place within the pretext of high Anglo- Catholicism.

Very positive for those of you looking for gay friendly churches, the Gay and Lesbian Group meets for a "bring and share" lunch after the service on the second Sunday of the month. The church also offers other events such as Taize Prayer, dancing on Sunday afternoons and the laying on of hands.

In my opinion, the overall performance of St. James's was 5/10.

Further Details:
St. James's Piccadilly
179 Piccadilly
London W1J 9LL
0207 734 4511
stjames.piccadilly@dlondon.org.uk

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