As the Rector of St. James and on behalf of our parish, I welcome you! St. James is a diverse and inclusive community ministering in English and Italian for more than a century. No matter who you are, no matter where you’re from, you have a home in Florence with us.
– Reverend Richard B. Easterling
Worship at St. James
Beginning Sunday, July 13, our regular Sunday worship will move to 10:00 a.m. for the summer season. The Sunday service will return to 11:00 in September.
St. James is a congregation of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Our local organizational structure is the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, comprised of twenty worshipping communities from all over Europe and as the Republic of Georgia.
As is typical in the Episcopal Church, our principal service on Sunday is the Holy Eucharist (Mass). The language of our liturgy comes from The Book of Common Prayer 1979, and both English and Italian are used in our worship. Our hymns come from The Hymnal 1982 and Lift Every Voice and Sing 2.
St. James is a diverse community with members from all over the Anglican Communion and beyond. That being the case, a variety of individual practices are present on any Sunday, some being more catholic and others more protestant. All are welcome at St. James – we aim to make our worship accessible, inclusive, and engaging.
If you live in Florence or are just visiting, please join us this Sunday at 11.00 am for Holy Eucharist and stay for the rinfresco (coffee hour) that follows. Can’t make it in person? Tune into our Sunday Livestream on our YouTube channel – subscribe for updates and notifications.
Our Clergy
In December of 2020, the Reverend Richard Brooks Easterling arrived in Florence with his husband David to begin his ministry with St. James.
Richard was promoted to rector of St. James in 2022. This important milestone was celebrated with a special service in April 2023 with our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Mark. D.W. Edington.
Prior to accepting the call to St. James, Fr. Richard served as Rector of St. George’s Church in New Orleans and Rural Dean of the Uptown Consistory of Episcopal Churches. He was ordained to the Priesthood in the Diocese of Louisiana by the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Jenkins in July of 2003.
Fr. Richard currently serves on the Commission on the Ministry of the Baptized, the Bishop’s Council of Advice, and the Liturgical Committee of the Convocation.
Photo courtesy of The Florentine
The city of Florence did not permit the presence of non-Catholic churches until after the exile of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II of Lorraine, in 1849 on the heels of the 1848 uprisings. The Tuscan parliament then passed legislation permitting churches of other denominations. Around 1850 a handful of American Episcopalians began to meet as a church. St. James became an official parish in 1867.
Our church was the last work of an English architect prominent in the Gothic Revival movement of the late nineteenth century. The land was purchased in 1907 for $12,822. Church construction, the organ, and other furnishings totaled $66,556. More than half of the total funds were contributed by Edward Francis Searles. J. Pierpont Morgan donated $10,000 after church representatives approached him, encouraged by his generosity to the Episcopal Church in Rome and his purchase of land for the Episcopal church of St. Paul’s Within the Walls. After examining the architect’s plans, Morgan found the building plans “inadequate” and requested more elaborate plans. When these were produced, so was his gift.
The church closed during World War II and suffered no heavy damage. It reopened in 1947 in an era when the American community in Florence included Bernard Berenson, Sinclair Lewis, and the M.I.T. inventor Philip Baldwin.
On November 3 and 4, 1966, the Arno River flooded its banks and rose to a height of twelve feet in and around many of Florence’s most important museums and monuments, wreaking devastating damage. Water and fuel oil flooded the undercroft and reached the windowsills of the rectory. St. James parishioners wrote to their friends in America for help. In three months, the parish raised $425,000 for relief. The vestry, in cooperation with the British government, created an agency to support each request, providing a weekly grant of $35 per family.
Learn more about our church’s history in the pages of St. James Church in Florence by the Rev. Canon Clement W. Welsh. The book can be ordered from the Church Office and shipped worldwide.