A little about our Tradition
The Parish of St James’s Clacton-on-Sea encompasses West Clacton and Jaywick. We are responsible for 2 churches and approximately 17,500 people. We are part of the Church of England, and are in the Diocese of Chelmsford.
St Jame’s was established, and continues, to be in the Catholic tradition of the church. This is reflected in our buildings and furnishings, our vestments and services and, most importantly, in our teaching.
What does that actually mean? Well its a good question and we hope that this section of our website might begin to answer some of those questions.
What we believe
One - We believe in one God...
We are part of the one Church that Jesus instituted in his lifetime. We seek to express unity with all those who are baptised in his name.
Holy - maker of Heaven and earth...
We seek to make our lives holy, dedicated to God, through prayer and worship.
Catholic - of all that is, seen and unseen.
We see ourselves as part of the worldwide family of Christians alive today, as well as those who have gone before, and will come after us.
Apostolic - For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven.
We are called by God, only to be sent out to do his work and live according to his will in the world... we are ones who are sent (apostles).
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:42
Like any organisation made up of people from different backgrounds, cultures and nationalities its hard to give a definite answer to the question ‘what do you believe?’
Within our Church family a full spectrum of views about politics and the world can be found. What unites us is a vision of how the world should be. Sometimes we get this right and our words and actions reflect what we believe to be true in our hearts… and, like all people, sometimes we fall-short of those high-standards Jesus has set for us.
At St James’s we seek to follow Jesus and to grow into his likeness. In order to do this we study the scriptures which reveal him to us, and we draw close to his physical presence in the eucharist (the bread and wine that becomes Jesus for us at the mass).
Our growth in faith is focused on four areas:
– Worship
– Study
– Stewardship
– Outreach
And the word became flesh, and lived among us…
John 1:14
The quotation above form John’s gospel is at the heart of our life here at St James. It reminds us that God gave himself a human body in the person of Jesus so that we might know him and might learn to be like him. It is a constant reminder that we need to put flesh on our faith by living it out in the world through our thoughts, words and, most importantly, our actions.