Our Neighborhood

• We are located on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

• In the 946 square miles that make up Illinois' Cook County there are about five and a half million people.

• Almost three million of them live within the City of Chicago.

• St James Presbyterian Church is located in the West Ridge neighborhood of Chicago (also known as West Rogers Park or Nortown).  (For some of the history of this location and its naming issues, read about the Cabbage War.)

• Our neighborhood became part of the city of Chicago in 1893.

• What is now Ridge Avenue was once a major "highway" for the Pottawattamie and other Native American people.

• In the 1830s, this area became a settling place for Irish, English, and German immigrants.

• When the St. James Church was founded in the 1927 the people in the immediate neighborhood were mostly German surnamed.

• Today the neighborhood has the Midwest's highest concentration of Indian and Pakistani persons, a growing Hispanic population, and a large Jewish community.

• We share our building with The Horeb House of Worship (an Indian congregation) and Kindred Hearts.

Our Congregation

• Our congregation is made up of persons from several ethnicities and language groups.

• We are a small congregation in numbers and eager for new friends to join us.  Our Sunday service at 10:30 am usually includes about 30 persons.

• Theologically we are a liberal/progressive congregation trying to be fully engaged in our local community.

• We are, in the jargon of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a More Light Church.

• For a longer statement of what we believe and of our history, go here.

Our Worship Style

• To view or print some of our recent worship bulletins, go here.

• We are fortunate to have several talented musicians in our congregation including published composers of music for worship.  We have a volunteer choir that lead us in worship regularly.  We appreciate spirited yet serious music leadership in our worship.

• We include our children in worship and have special classes for younger learners.  We also have a room suitable for the care of very young children.

• Our service follows a traditional order of worship that would be familiar to persons with experience in most mainstream Christian traditions.  But we are not concerned with serious dressing up for worship or with formal clothes.  Our services most always include laughter and occasionally tears.  Our attempt is to take our faith seriously but not to take ourselves too seriously.

Inclusive Language

• We believe that in public and private worship our metaphors for God should reflect all the variety of gender, race, and language God is using to communicate with us.  We are uncomfortable, however, with the removal of all aspects of gender and the specifics of embodiment from descriptions of God.  In other words, to us God is never an it but always a living entity.  In current theological jargon, God is always thou.  Sometimes a mother, sometimes a father but always a great companion seeking relationship and offering and receiving love.

• We believe that descriptions of people of faith should be fully inclusive of all the variety possible within the human condition.