Early Days
St James was formed in 1973 and known as the Provisional District of Belconnen C. It originally met in Latham Primary School. Ron Butler was the first rector of what was seen as an evangelical parish which attracted a like-minded congregation. It also had a strong missionary focus.
As Ron Butler and his wife moved from the parish to a calling in Northern Australia, the parish had a time of trying to find its first replacement rector. As a result came a strengthening of lay leadership and the formation of self-management that was to prove important in the years ahead.
The second rector was David Clarke and given the degree of independence that had been formed, he was instructed to bring us into line. He recognised on his arrival that the parish had a strength and commitment to outreach, teaching and pastoral care that he believed should be encouraged. Over his time in the parish, a strong lay leadership in worship and other activities developed. The church had been meeting in schools since the parish commenced and by now was meeting in the assembly hall at Holt Primary School.
Brian and Frances Turner were the next rectory family, and Brian continued the evangelical and missionary focus. Throughout this period there were changes in the prayerbook and the trialling of different forms of workshop style and format.
The question of a possible move to our own building was always a matter of ongoing discussion – and at this time we did take up some office space in the Kippax Centre as a way of giving some extra and reasonable office space to the Rector.
Family tea groups continued to grow and change into different styles to reflect the fact that the congregation was now starting to change in its age structure, but was still predominantly family oriented with families now starting to reach high school age.
At this time, we became a full parish and adopted the name of St James.
With the arrival of Les and Lyn Barley, there was a move into a time of consolidation and rebuilding – our families were growing up into their later teen years and going off to tertiary studies – the age profile had changed dramatically – but yet we retained a very strong evangelical and missionary focus in our life. It was during this period that the parish decided that it was time to move to having a separate parish centre – our cooperative arrangements with the Church of Christ folk came to an end (although we have continued to have a close working relationship with them over the years).
At the time the building was opened – in 1994 – having met for around 22 years in school halls and libraries, we were anticipating that we were about to enter upon a period of change with the arrival of new families and parishioners.
Lindsay and Glenda Troth joined us as the rectory family at this time. It was a time of change with new responsibilities in looking after a building. Not only were there more services – from 2 services to 3 services each Sunday – there was also important spiritual changes as well. Lindsay continued on a strong evangelical outlook and we continued with close links to missionary work outside the parish – but we also saw a strong movement of the Spirit within the congregation as people became aware of and actively embraced the movement of God’s Spirit across the congregation. These things were not only happening within St James but also within other parishes as well. During this period we saw the emergence and growth of the pastoral care program.
In 2003 Nick and Joy Speyer replaced Lindsay and Glenda. At this time there were few young families in the congregation. A Kid’s Club for primary age children was reopened. Joy reorganised the Sunday School which took on the name GTs (God’s Team). In 2007 some of our mothers began a PlayTime group to include parents of pre-schoolers. This group has grown to two mornings a week. An annual Community Fun Day was begun which draws in many people from the local community. The number of young families grew in the church and a home group for the parents is running strongly. Ministries were begun in the new Kingsford Smith School when it opened in 2009. Small groups continued to be an important feature of life at St James.
Today
Now we have been through 30 years of life in St James in various forms. There have been a number of points of continuity over the years, for example:
- a strong focus on evangelical and biblical teaching
- a commitment to reaching out within the parish and beyong
- a strong support for members of the parish family
- financial independent and an ability to meet out commitments through the freewill giving of the congregation
- a strong youth focus, together with a strong family and small group focus
- a missionary church in the sense that we have continually trained up and sent people out into service
- more recently, an empowering of the Holy Spirit
For the next 30 years, may we seek and know God’s leadership and know the blessing of His presence with us in our life as the family of St James.