Advent

The Church’s Year begins with Advent. There are four Sundays in this season, which is traditionally both the preparation time for Christmas and the final consummation of all things – this latter theme often gets overlooked.
Masses in Advent begin with a procession and sung Litany.
Institutions and schools will be using Churches for their Christmas celebrations.

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
This Advent celebration, featuring splendid choral music and traditional congregational carols, is held on a Sunday evening, as close as is practically possible before Christmas.

Christmas

Christmas celebrates the first coming of Christ – God sharing human life and experience. The feast begins on -

Christmas Eve
6.00 p.m.


11.30 p.m.

Children's Christmas Crib Service
Centred on our magnificent crib, this candlelit service with carols is very popular with families and their young children.
Christmas Midnight Mass
Heralded by the ringing of the bells, and including the Blessing of the Crib, traditional music and carols, this service is a focal point for the local community and their Christmas celebrations.

Christmas Day
8.00 a.m.
10.00 a.m.

Mass
Family Mass with Carols

New Year's Eve
10.45 p.m.

Sung Mass to welcome the New Year, followed by the bell-ringers ringing out the old year and ringing in the New Year; there is also a little partying!

Epiphany

Epiphany marks the visit of the Wise Men to the Christ Child at Bethlehem and, more importantly, is the Feast that indicates God’s loving purpose for all the world. This episode in the ‘Infancy Narratives’ is to be found only in St Matthew’s Gospel (St Matthew 2.1-12).

Candlemass, or The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

- marks the end of the Christmas Season. It falls properly on 2nd February, but may be observed on the nearest Sunday. Candles are carried in procession to remind us that the Light of the World came to dispel all that ‘darkness’ claims of human life and hope.

Lent

A penitential season, forty days of disciplined life lived out in prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It’s a kind of ‘spring clean’ for Christians, but should never be a time of misery.

Ash Wednesday

- heralds the beginning of Lent. Ash made from the burned palm crosses of the previous year are used to mark a cross on the forehead of the worshipper –
a reminder of the penitential season, a spiritual journey - looking inward for deeper self-awareness and outward to the neighbour in need.

Mothering Sunday

Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Lent.
There is a tradition of blessing flowers before the children take them to their mothers. It was first used as a kind of ‘breather’ at a time when the keeping of Lent was more rigorously observed. Mothering Sunday might refer originally to apprentices having time off to visit their mothers or visit the cathedral (the ‘mother’ church) on this day.

Passion Sunday

10.00 a.m.

- is the fifth Sunday in Lent. Statues and crosses in church are veiled as a reminder of the gathering storm of opposition to Jesus, leading to his eventual betrayal, arrest and the other huge events of Holy Week.

Sunday Mass

Holy Week

Palm Sunday
9.45 a.m.

The Church recalls the entry of Christ into Jerusalem.
- beginning in St James’ Church Hall (corner of Prebend Street and Packington Street) followed by a Procession to the church for the Parish Mass and a full reading of the Passion. This day is the beginning of the Great Week that includes –

Maundy Thursday
7.30 p.m.

Sung Mass
- the commemoration of the Last Supper and the Institution of the Eucharist, Mass or Holy Communion. Within the Service there is the rite of the Washing of the Feet, a reminder to us of Christ’s servanthood and of our own call to the service of one another.
The Mass ends with a Procession of the Sacrament to the Altar of Repose – our Gethsemane – where a vigil of prayer is kept until midnight.

Good Friday

10.00 a.m.
11.45 a.m.

2.00 p.m.

- is the day of our Lord’s crucifixion, a solemn day marked by public processions of witness as well as worship expressing the mood of God’s people recalling the death of the Son of God. At St James’ –

Children's Way of the Cross
Ecumenical Procession of Witness
from the N1 Centre in Islington to St Mary’s Church (Upper Street). The event ends at 1.00 p.m.
Solemn Liturgy of the Day
- includes the Passion according to St John in which the whole congregation take part, the Veneration of the Cross, followed by the Reproaches and Holy Communion.

Holy Saturday
8.00 p.m.

In the morning, we decorate our church for Easter, then –
The Easter Vigil
- begins with lighting the New Fire from which the Paschal or Easter Candle is lit and a Procession is made into a darkened church. When the candle is placed in the sanctuary with the proclamation ‘Christ our Light’, the church is illuminated again
for the Easter Proclamation followed by scripture readings and the singing of psalms; we listen to the story of God’s redeeming work through human history to the victory of resurrection. Baptisms may take place. The people of God are invited to renew their Baptismal Promises; this is followed by the First Mass Of Easter.

Easter

Easter Day
8.00 a.m.
10.00 a.m.

- continues the celebration of Christ’s resurrection with –
Mass
Procession and the Parish Mass Of The Resurrection

Ascension Day

- is properly, the Feast of Christ the King, when we celebrate the fact that, forty days on from the resurrection, the risen Christ was freed from the limitations of this world and opened for us the way to life eternal. At St James’ –

7.30 p.m.

Sung Mass
- at which we are joined by members of other local Churches.

Pentecost (Whitsunday)

- celebrates the empowerment of the people of God – the Holy Spirit descends upon the Church and the mission of God takes off. For each of us, God becomes the indwelling friend who remains our companion and guide through life.

Trinity Sunday

- is the crown of the Christian Year. We celebrate the great mystery of the divine nature revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – Three Persons in One God.
A mystery not so much to be explained but rather enjoyed – the Companionship or Intimacy of Love in which we all have a place.

Corpus Christi

- is kept on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday and is the celebration of the Institution of the Eucharist outside Holy Week. In some places there is a great sense of Mardi Gras, with processions and a mood of party and celebration.
At St James’ –

7.30 p.m.

Sung Mass

St James' Day - Patronal Festival

- falls properly on 25th July. If this is not a Sunday, then we observe it on the Sunday before the Feast. It is our tradition in the Parish to have a picnic in the Vicarage garden following the Parish Mass.

Harvest Festival

- is kept on the first Sunday in October. Local people, as well as members of the congregation bring packet, tinned and fresh produce on the day before (Saturday) to decorate the church. After the Parish Mass, it is distributed to local people who are in need.
Harvest Lunch (in St James' Church Hall) follows the Parish Mass and everyone brings food to share. If you know of anyone in need who might be grateful for a gift of foodstuffs, please contact:
The Vicar (Parish Priest)
Tel: 020-7226 4108
St James' Vicarage, 1A Arlington Square, Islington, London N1 7DS
E-mail: vicar@stjamesislington.org

All Saints' Day

- falls properly on 1st November but is kept on the Sunday designated All Saints Sunday in the calendar.

All Souls Day

- falls properly on the 2nd November.
A Sung Mass of Requiem. The families and friends of those who have died and whose funerals have been conducted from St James’ (either at the church, crematorium or cemetery chapels) are invited to join us. The names of the departed are read during the Intercessions. For three weeks beforehand, lists are available inside the church for names of the departed. Names can be added to the lists in church, via our website Prayer Board or given to the Vicar for inclusion.

Contact:
The Vicar (Parish Priest)
Tel: 020-7226 4108
St James' Vicarage, 1A Arlington Square, Islington, London N1 7DS
E-mail: vicar@stjamesislington.org

Remembrance Sunday

- the Sunday nearest to November 11th when those who have died in two world wars and every conflict since are recalled in a traditional Act of Remembrance (with two minutes silence) within the Parish Mass.

Christ the King

- the last Sunday in the Christian Year when we are reminded that the whole of life and all time is summed up in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the King of all.

Other Saint’s Days

- feasts of members of the Church family are observed in the daily Eucharistic celebration as they appear in the Calendar. Major Saints days may be ‘transferred’ to the nearest Sunday, so that the lives of the great heroes of the faith, our brothers and sisters whose lives often changed the world, may be remembered and celebrated by the present community at St James’.

The Christmas Fair

- takes place in the Church and the Church Hall on the third Saturday in November from 12.00 noon to 3.00 p.m.
Items for sale include produce, books, refreshments, gifts, jewelry, nearly new, plants, toys plus a tombola stall and a raffle.
Fundraising is not for the church, proceeds go to local and overseas charities.

No entrance charge to the Church; small token charge for entrance to the Church Hall.