VOLUNTEER THROUGH OUR OUTREACH MINISTRIES
St. James provides opportunities for people of all ages to grow in faith, enjoy intergenerational community, and serve their neighbors. We believe our faith starts in church—then reaches out to shape our city and our world. Here are some of the programs and projects we support:
St. James is a member of Faith in Action Bay Area, a network of congregations and community leaders working to uphold the dignity of all people. Our collective efforts are directed primarily towards homelessness and housing justice issues, as well as voter engagement, including candidate forums and get-out-the-vote actions that support these priorities.
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Individual members volunteer their time to homeless outreach, environmental and immigrant justice including issues related to contamination at Hunter’s Point, accompanying newcomers from Ukraine and collaboration with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity as they accompany new immigrants.
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We hold bi-monthly meetings to provide updates and plan for future activities. We provide mutual support and resources to one another as we pursue justice in our community. All are welcome to join us on the third Sunday of the even numbered months following the 10 a.m. service. Meetings last an hour. SJFIA is co-led by Barbara Webb obipone@aol.com and Sandra Dratler sandradratler@gmail.com
St James hosts Sacred Ground circles that explore race and racism in the USA through the lens of faith. This program is part of Becoming Beloved Community, the Episcopal Church's long term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, our ministries, and our society.
The mission of Project Homeless Connect, a community-based non-profit, is to connect San Franciscans experiencing homelessness with the care they need to move forward. Services are provided in person at their offices, through mobile off-site services, and virtually on the phone and over email.
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St. James parishioners have been volunteering with PHC for over five years. They are active in outreach to our unhoused neighbors in the Richmond District as part of the monthly mobile off-site services. These events take place on the third Friday of each month when we meet to begin our shift at 10:30 a.m. and finish up by 12:30. We walk the Inner Richmond and pass out hygiene kits to unhoused neighbors, encouraging them to seek services that day through the mobile van.
Project Homeless Connect received word recently that their funding has been eliminated in the Mayor’s budget. Key members of our congregation have been providing testimony for the restoration of this funding before the Board of Supervisors and the relevant budget committee. News as it develops may be found in our Weekly Newsletter, including ways for you to join the voices of many others who are advocating on behalf of this critical community resource.
Acknowledgment and Thanksgiving for the Land
We acknowledge that St. James is located on the unceded traditional territory of the Yelamu, a local tribe of Ramaytush Ohlone peoples of the San Francisco peninsula. Yelamu families lived in the area now known as San Francisco long before California was Spain, Mexico or the United States. Colonization, which is ongoing and still adversely affects the indigenous people from the Bay Area, resulted in the elimination of the Yelamu tribe. As the original stewards of this land, the Ramaytush Ohlone understood the interconnectedness of all things and maintained harmony with nature for millennia. We pay our respects to the Ancestors, Elders and Relatives of the Ramaytush Community and affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples.
Creator, you made all people of every land. It is our responsibility to give thanks and respect to those who first occupied this land we are upon. We give thanks to the Ramaytush Ohlone, the first people of this land. We offer our respect to those ancestors who may be interred in this land. We are also thankful for the gifts of the people of the land. Creator let us be of good mind to reconcile the mistreatment of this land and of those who have been displaced. With thankful and respectful hearts, we pray in your Name, your son the Peacemaker and the Sacred Spirit. Amen.