Visit Toowoomba’s Oldest Church, dedicated in 1869.

History and Tradition

• Experience the ambience

• Neo-gothic architecture

• Stained-glass windows

• Beautiful grounds

• Learn about the rich history as a worshipping community, with links to the broader community of Toowoomba

What’s On

10 am: The History, Architecture and Stained Glass Windows

PowerPoint presentation by Lyn Hodgson

11 am: Sunday School Memories

Presented by Lynne and Julien

11.30 am: Organ Recital on historic pipe organ

Organists Eduarda van Klinken and Pamela Duane. Guest soloists Ian Kammholz, tenor, and a talented young violinist

12.30 pm to 2 pm: Renewal of wedding vows

Rev Mark and Rev Melissa, certificates given

2 pm: Musical performance by Dinka youth choir

Experience the joy of these young singers

2.30 pm: Sing Praises

Join us for community ‘favourite’ hymn singing, led by St James’ Choir and organist Andrew Doecke

3.30 pm: Explaining Anglican Worship

Rev Mark and Rev Melissa

5 pm: Sung Evensong

Traditional High Anglican Evensong, commemorating the New Guinea Martyrs of World War II

Available all day

• Refreshments for purchase: morning tea and lunch

• Display of historic church vestments and vessels

• History and archive displays

• Mini market table with home bake, preserves, plants, crafts

Our church and hall are heated.

This is a FREE EVENT. Donations to church ministry would be appreciated.

A funeral is a farewell filled with love and respect.

This conversation will help you start the process of preparing for a funeral ahead of time, so that loved ones know your and/or your partners’ wishes.

What to expect:

• Planning funerals and memorials

• Cremation & burial options

• The role of the executor

• Walk away with a draft plan

Light refreshments will be available.

Free entry.

This event has been cancelled due to low registrations.

He is risen, Alleluia!

Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, after his sacrifice for everyone on the cross, to bring us back into relationship and eternal life with God.

Services are at the usual Sunday times of 7.30am, 10am and in Dinka at 1pm. Please join us!

Join us in vigil as we wait the coming resurrection of Christ on Easter Day.

The new Paschal candle is lit, we renew our baptismal vows and celebrate of the resurrection of our Lord. This service is rich in tradition and scripture and includes holy communion (please note that incense will be used).

Recalling the crucifixion (video), silent reflection, invitation to pre-sanctified holy communion and a short sermon.

This service is in the Dinka language.

Good Friday

Remembering the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us.

7:30am - Mass of the Pre-Sanctified and stations of the cross

This service continues the service begun the night before… with communion that was consecrated then set aside and watched over, as representative of Christ’s body and blood.

We re-enter the church for this service in quiet and relative darkness…

10:00am - Stations of the Cross

Travel the journey from Jesus’ rejection by the crowd to his crucifixion and death.

Join us for this moving liturgy, which includes the symbolic memorial of Jesus washing his followers’ feet on the night before he died.

Our service concludes in darkness, silent prayer and the opportunity to sit quietly in keeping vigil with Christ awhile.

The word Maundy comes from a middle English word meaning command, and we use that word today to remind us that Jesus commanded that we should love, serve and care for one another.

Inviting children and young people, parents and parishioners. No cost.

In the evening, before he was betrayed, Jesus shared the Passover meal with his friends and this was the beginning of our Christian Holy Communion.

Celebrate through a Passover meal with readings and explanation of symbolism, through sensory combinations of sound, smell, and tastes, involved in following the age-old rituals of the Jewish people.

Our Thursday evening will begin in the hall at 5:15 for our meal continuing over to Church for Maundy Thursday service with the washing of the feet and clearing of the church.

Lynne Cain must have definite numbers please by 13 April - as we want to supply the exact amount of food. Lynne: 0437 465 623

Hosanna to the King!

Palm Sunday (sometimes also known as Passion Sunday in some Christian traditions) celebrates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. Citizens waved palm fronds and laid them in front of him, as one would to pave the way for their king.

In celebration and remembrance, we make fresh palm crosses to give out today at our services.

Each year, our palm crosses are kept and brought back before the next Ash Wednesday. Then the old palm crosses are burnt, ground and mixed with Chrism oil, to become the ash used in signing of the cross on our foreheads at the Ash Wednesday ceremonies.

Ars Cantorum Presents…

Towards Easter: A Concert of Eastertide Music

Featuring Worthy is the Lamb, by Lloyd Larsen

with supporting music by Victor Johnson, Kenneth Leighton, Tchaikovsky, David Rasbach, Claudio Casciolini and more.

Conductor: Pam Duane

Accompanist: Andrew Doecke

Tickets $25 (school aged children no charge)

Tickets available from Choir members and St James’ Parish Office (ph 46391858), or at the door prior to the concert.

Light refreshments will be served in the Parish Centre after the concert - Come and Join Us!

In partnership with Amnesty International Toowoomba Group, the film Shayda will be shown on Thursday 20th March, 7 pm, at St James Anglican Parish Hall.

Shayda is a dramatisation of (Director) Noora Niasari’s early life, set in the Iranian diaspora community of suburban Melbourne. “It was something I had experienced, but I hadn’t really seen on screen before.” - The Guardian Film Review by Wenlei Ma

Admission by donation

Come and see the film, join us for the discussion and a light supper afterwards.

On Ash Wednesday our special service of Holy Communion includes the imposition of ashes and the Lenten litany. All are welcome.

This service will be followed by our first session of our Lenten Bible Study: Hope25.

Image by Ahna Ziegler on Unsplash

Please join us in St James’ Parish Centre for the latest Movies that Matter, along with Toowoomba Amnesty International.

Tea/coffee and discussions after movie.

This edition of Bible Book Club, is about getting the most out of your Bible, an introductory webinar.

Topics will include:

• choosing a Bible translation

• the structure of the Bible

• literary genres in the Bible

• ways of reading the Bible

• resources that may help

This will be an online session, meeting via Zoom on Sunday 2 February from 7 pm to 9 pm (or earlier).  Email melissa@stjames.org.au for the link code to join.

How Bible Book Club works (although this webinar will be slightly different): 

Each Book Club meeting will focus on a book or set of chapters from the Bible, coinciding with the lectionary cycle.  Participants are encouraged to read the book or chapters before the meeting, but it’s not essential.  The meeting will be live via Zoom and recorded to be accessed later by anyone who can’t attend in person. This recording will be publicly available. 

It is hoped that Bible Book Club will enhance participants’ and viewers’ understanding of the Sunday readings. 

Start the new school, college or worrk year with a blessing.

Bring your backpack, pencil case, lunch box, handbag, or anything else that is a symbol of your daily life.

The blessing will be part of our normal Sunday service.

Start the new school, college or worrk year with a blessing.

Bring your backpack, pencil case, lunch box, handbag, or anything else that is a symbol of your daily life.

The blessing will be part of our normal Sunday service.

Join our South Sudanese community at St James’ in Toowoomba, at 1 pm on Christmas Day for a Christmas Service in the Dinka language.

Children and adults are always welcome at St James’. No prior experience is necessary! We understand that small children have needs, so it’s OK to bring snacks.

We humans are story-makers and story-tellers, but for Christians, the Christmas story is the most precious story, the story of when the one great God came to be with us, and to be exactly like one of us, in the form of the baby Jesus. That’s so important because it means that God, in Jesus, knows the joys and sorrows, the exciting times and the pain of being human.

We would love you to join us to celebrate that God is with us at Christmas and always.

This service includes Holy Communion.

Join us at St James’ in Toowoomba, at 10 am on Christmas Day for a traditional Christmas Service, with lots of carols.

Children and adults are always welcome at St James’. No prior experience is necessary! We understand that small children have needs, so it’s OK to bring snacks.

We humans are story-makers and story-tellers, but for Christians, the Christmas story is the most precious story, the story of when the one great God came to be with us, and to be exactly like one of us, in the form of the baby Jesus. That’s so important because it means that God, in Jesus, knows the joys and sorrows, the exciting times and the pain of being human.

We would love you to join us to celebrate that God is with us at Christmas and always.

This service includes Holy Communion.

Join us at St James’ in Toowoomba, at 7.30 am on Christmas Day for a traditional Christmas Service, with lots of carols.

Children and adults are always welcome at St James’. No prior experience is necessary! We understand that small children have needs, so it’s OK to bring snacks.

We humans are story-makers and story-tellers, but for Christians, the Christmas story is the most precious story, the story of when the one great God came to be with us, and to be exactly like one of us, in the form of the baby Jesus. That’s so important because it means that God, in Jesus, knows the joys and sorrows, the exciting times and the pain of being human.

We would love you to join us to celebrate that God is with us at Christmas and always.

This service includes Holy Communion.

Join us at St James’ in Toowoomba, at 5.30 on Christmas Eve for a special telling of the Christmas story for families with young children, with lots of carols.

Children are invited to come dressed as angels, shepherds, wise persons, royalty or farm animals.

We understand that small children have needs, so it’s OK to bring snacks.

We humans are story-makers and story-tellers, but for Christians, the Christmas story is the most precious story, the story of when the one great God came to be with us, and to be exactly like one of us, in the form of the baby Jesus. That’s so important because it means that God, in Jesus, knows the joys and sorrows, the exciting times and the pain of being human.

We would love you to join us to celebrate that God is with us at Christmas and always.

This service includes Holy Communion.

Preparing for Christmas:

in a service of music, symbols and readings

(featuring St James Choir and Ars Cantorum members)

at St James on

Sunday 15 December 2024 at 5pm

followed by parish party meal, two courses plus wine for $20 per person.

Funds raised from the meal will go towards mission projects supported by the parish.

All are welcome!

Please RSVP by email here.

Why a Blue Christmas?

Cries of “Merry Christmas!” and non-stop carols contrast with the feelings of many people at this time of year. For those suffering from the recent or impending death of loved ones, for the lonely and for those whose families are in crisis, it can be a very isolated and dreary time. Every greeting and every song reminds the grief-stricken of how unhappy life is at this moment.  Many churches have begun to recognize that Festivals of Lessons and Carols, celebrations of Christmas, and children’s pageants do not meet everyone’s needs. To fill this gap we offer a Blue Christmas service, a Service of Solace for those who find this to be a painful time of the year. People who are not having a very merry Christmas and friends who support them are invited to come and sit with one another in a liturgy that speaks of the love of God for the grieving. Our service will include gentle music, Bible readings, prayers, private prayers and anointing. The service also includes ways to physically express our feelings by lighting a candle in prayer, and laying a cloth in the crib as a prayer offering. These prayers will then be gathered up again on Christmas Day.

5.30 pm, Sunday 8 December 2024

St James’, Toowoomba

St Anne’s, Highfields

The inaugural Bible Book Club, focussing on the Gospel of Luke, will happen online via Zoom on Sunday 24 November from 3 pm to 5 pm.  Email melissa@stjames.org.au for the link code to join.

How Bible Book Club works: 

Each Book Club meeting will focus on a book or set of chapters from the Bible, coinciding with the lectionary cycle.  Participants are encouraged to read the book or chapters before the meeting, but it’s not essential.  The meeting will be live via Zoom and recorded to be accessed later by anyone who can’t attend in person. This recording will be publicly available. 

Our inaugural meeting will be on the Gospel of Luke, as we prepare to enter year C of the lectionary cycle, which is the year of Luke.  We’ll talk about the origins and structure of the book, key themes and passages, and highlights to look out for during the year. 

It is hoped that Bible Book Club will enhance participants’ and viewers’ understanding of the Sunday readings.  Meetings during 2025 will relate to the books and chapters that occur in a significant series in the lectionary.

Discussion Topic:

Forming and guiding young people and members of our community to know peace within themselves and to build peace in their communities.

Guest Speakers:

• Rev’d Charissa Suli, President of the Uniting Church in Australia.

• Professor Dr Hoon Chang Yau, Director of Asian Studies, University of Brunei Darussalam.

• Mr Carl Maurer, Manager of Welfare and Self Reliance Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Speaker Panel: Rev’d Charissa Suli, Prof Dr Hoon Chang Yau, Mr Carl Maurer.

Panel Moderator and Host: Rev’d Melissa Conway

The forum will be followed by a meal in the adjacent Parish Centre hall. 

 This is a free event, but bookings are needed for Catering purposes. Please RSVP by Wednesday 13 October at this link:  https://events.humanitix.com/community-and-faith-leaders-forum

Thank you to Pure Land College for providing the meal and hospitality. Thanks to the Anglican Parish of Toowoomba – St James’ for the use of the venue.

Please join us at St James’ for the Annual Service of Prayer For Reconciliation

 This is a joint initiative of

Anglican Diocese of Brisbane

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane

Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba

Light refreshments will be offered in the Parish Centre Hall after the service.