St. James Episcopal Church

The Mission of The Gathering Senior Adult Minitry is to plan and provide for the well-being of the seniors in our community including their physical, social and spiritual needs, by working with our seniors to foster opportunities for study, service, spiritual growth and social interaction.  We seek to partner with our seniors to deepen their journey of faith and improve their integration into our community

St. James Episcopal Youth Community is the place for youth grades 6-12. We call this a community because the connections we build go beyond the doors of the church. We seek to be a place where we build and strengthen relationships with one another, while remaining an open and safe place to bring in friends and others who may be seeking a community to call their own. We also seek to be a community through building and strengthening relationships between youth and caring adults, and through building and strengthening relationships between Youth and Jesus Christ. 

We do this through programs that create shared experiences for our youth, adult volunteers, and the parish at large.  ​​Specifically, we seek to do this through building our time around four tenants: Study, Service, Socialization, and Spirituality. We Study and engage topics that are important to youth and their Spiritual journeys. We Serve in line with the spirit and heartbeat of St. James Parish, acting as Christ hands, feet, and heart in this world. Along side these experiences we acknowledge youth as Social beings and make space for them to live in to this though silly games and time laughing around the dinner (or lunch, or afternoon coffee) table. Finally, we guide youth as they develop their Spirituality and deepen their understanding of and relationship with Jesus Christ through liturgical and other prayer and responsive practices. 

St. James Giving Tree is an opportunity for the St. James family to support the education of low income students and Title I schools in the Greenville area. We work with school counselors and administrators to supply low income students and Title I schools with school supplies, clothing and footwear. Regular donations are gathered throughout the year. 

St. James Angel Tree accepts donations of Christmas gifts from St. James parishioners for low income children throughout the Greenville area. We work with Greenville County Department of Housing Services and other local groups to identify at risk families and children and to provide Christmas gifts for them. 

St. James parishioners have committeed to supplying United Ministries' food pantry with 300 16oz bags of dried beans per month as part of their effort to feed the hungry in the Greenville area. Donations are accepted weekly.

St. James regularly sends teams to participate in the Feed Thy Neighbor breakfast program sponsored by St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Greenville. This ministry provides a hot breakfast every Saturday to the disadvantaged in Greenville's West End area.

Project Host is a local soup kitchen and culinary vocational training center for the underprivileged in Greenville. St. James parishioners serve at the soup kitchen and St. James holds a Bluegrass & Barbecue benefit for  Project Host every August.

St. James supports the missionary efforts of Roberto and Cameron Vivanco in Quito, Ecuador. One of their ministries is Education Equals Hope, a scholarship program for children in Ecuador which helps them afford a quality education. St. James sends mission teams to Quito to assist the Vivancos in their work and to experience the realities of living in the developing world first hand. 

St. James supports and sends volunteers to work with KAIROS International prison ministry. This support includes baking cookies for the incarcerated, hosting KAIROS team retreats, and St. James parishioners volunteering to be on staff during KAIROS events at correctional institutions. 

The Mission of the Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network (GAIHN) is to assist local congregations to share hospitality (in the form of emergency shelter, meals, and short-term housing) with homeless families that include children, and to help those families achieve self-sufficiency and self-fulfillment.

The Greenville Area IHN is a coalition of forty-two religious congregations collectively called GAIHN (Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network). Uniting volunteers and facilities from diverse religious communities and faith traditions, GAIHN provides homeless families with safe, secure shelter while offering emergency assistance (including superb transitional housing), strategies to obtain affordable housing and permanent employment, and appropriate referral and guidance to help reintegrate families into the community as quickly as possible.St. James hosts GAIHN two weeks per year at our facilities and assists in providing meals for two weeks at another facility.