Usnis is a vibrant Lithuanian folk dance group that has found its home at St James. Founded in 2023, Usnis brings together dancers from across the globe, including Lithuania, Argentina, India, Brazil, Canada, and Scotland. All united by a shared love of music, movement, and cultural heritage.

Led by choreographer Loreta Puisiene, the group practices, sweats, and laughs at St James every single Wednesday. They celebrate birthdays, organise fundraisers, make costumes, and perform at local events. The first solo concert last May was a sold-out success, with folk queuing up to get in!

This dedication has taken the dancers to major international festivals, put them on national television and even the subject of a documentary, part of which was filmed at St James.

Touring Europe, the gropu not only celebrates Lithuanian traditions but also proudly and loudly shares Scottish culture. Today, Usnis is recognised as an energetic, joyful Lithuanian Scottish community, with St James as its cherished home.

NCCI is a Black-led grassroots charity using music, culture, creativity, and wellbeing to empower individuals and strengthen communities. We exist to tackle inequality, poverty, and social exclusion, while celebrating diversity and providing safe spaces for expression, healing, and growth.

Using music and the arts as powerful tools for change, we provide opportunities for self-expression and cultural pride, developing skills, offering mentorships, cultural exchange, therapies, dialogue, and much more. Beyond creativity, we address poverty through our Afro Food Bank and community meals, while fostering inclusion via cultural integration workshops in schools, international collaborations, and our annual Awards Night.

In short, we bring together music, creativity, culture, and care to transform lives and build stronger communities.

The Baha'i Institute for Community Building in Leith offers educational materials to develop materially and spiritually prosperous communities by inviting residents to walk a path of service in their neighbourhood. The Baha'i Teachings address themes such as the oneness of God and religion, the oneness of humanity, freedom from prejudice, equality of the sexes, and the harmony between science and religion. We offer age-appropriate classes and programmes from young children to adults, based on spiritual education, building talantes and capacities to serve their communities, attending to

their own spiritual and intellectual growth, and contributing to the transformation of society. We also host spaces for prayer, family festivals, and homework support clubs at St James'.

We welcome, and comprise, individuals and families from all backgrounds. We feel closely aligned to the aims of St James' Church and love seeing all the wonderful efforts and activities that St James' leads that contribute to the betterment of Leith

In a three-way partnership between Safer by Sound, Inspiring Leith, and St. James, The Well gathers musicians, poets, storytellers, and dancers to find grace and healing at a monthly dry open-mic night. Many of us are either in addiction recovery of some kind and/or struggling with neuro-diversity issues. Testimonies abound of folks who arrive uncertain, anxious, and fearful only to leave uplifted and triumphant. There’s nothing quite like a live performance in a mutually engaging atmosphere to bring transformative encouragement to someone struggling. The spirit of the room is one of festive

laughter and abundant support for fellow performers.

Song, poetry, spoken word, instrumentals of every kind, interpretive dance - sometimes deeply introspective, sometimes riotously funny - it is always well worth the time.

SACRO’s specialist gender-based violence service advocates for and supports women who sell or exchange sex across Edinburgh. Our work is rooted in a non-judgmental, trauma-informed approach and the belief that every woman deserves safety, the right of choice, and access to support.

Being part of St James community means we have a dependable, warm, and safe home from which to operate, and a network of committed volunteers who offer more than just the building. This partnership has enable a stable, relationship-based outreach presence in an area of the city that is recognised

as a high risk for the women we work with.

Despite the clear urgency of need, services for women who exchange or sell sex remain under-funded and too often invisible. The women we meet can be isolated, and at risk of violence. With your help, we can build even stronger connections between women and the wider community support they deserve. Fundraising will help to keep the doors open at night, amplifying the partnership with the St James community, creating a model of neighbourhood-based, relational support.

Kasia and Grześ, founders of Axé Boom Boom, a social enterprise bringing people together through Capoeira and Djembe drumming. We run Djembe Classes for adults and Capoeira classes for children and adults, helping communities stay active, creative, and connected.

Our values are rooted in movement, rhythm, and joy — we believe that everyone deserves to feel the positive, good energy which is Axé! (ah-SHEH): the Brazilian word for good energy, joy, and connection, the energy of. community, rhythm, and positive vibes. We’re really looking forward to sharing that spirit at the Gala and filling the room with vibrant beats, smiles, and positive energy!

Graeme McDonald, a full-time musician, runs 'Music with Graeme' at St James twice a week for adults with learning disabilities and their care staff. Graeme also makes music at Richmond Craigmillar church and his music making is intended to be an expression of service to our community, providing resources which support those working in the social care industry as well as those in it's care. On a Wednesday, following the music session

with Graeme, a small team of volunteers from both L'Arche and St James' serve free homemade soup and bread to anyone who wants to stay for lunch. We all sit down together and enjoy chatting, whilst eating, and getting to know one another. Folk from the wider community are encouraged to pop in and join us.

The Pesky Piskies are a self-organising grassroots collective of lay and clergy members of the Scottish Episcopal Church (Piskies). We exist to provide a space within the Scottish Episcopal Church to communicate and organise with each other across Charge and Diocesan lines.

Today, the primary focus of most of us is on the response of the SEC leadership (Houses of Bishops and Clergy) to the ongoing situation in Israel, Gaza, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the wider region. At other times, other issues will be more to the fore. We have members across every diocese in Scotland, but many of us call St James home. The support and encouragement we receive here enables us to stay rooted in love as we follow the prophetic calling to speak truth to power, and to speak that love back into the activist circles in which so many of us move.

St James church kindly let us use their building every Thursday evening for our Narcotics Anonymous men's meeting. While there is no affiliation between the church and NA all involved have been accommodating and welcoming from the start.

The meeting has grown significantly since we started it one year ago and has become a central part of recovery from substance abuse for many of the men who attend. The stability of having this space has been the foundation for that. We have also seen first hand the great work that the church does in supporting other people and groups.