St. James Episcopal Church

My wife and I were recently married at St. James. The church for the ceremony and parish hall for the reception were wonderful! We both give the church and Calla Carver, the wedding coordinator, five stars. The totally unprofessional interim organist, Jesse Ratcliff, is the sole reason for a sub-5 star review. We had a short engagement of 3-4 months, and the church and Calla were incredibly prompt and accommodating. Calla went ABOVE AND BEYOND to make sure everything was situated, the logistics went off without a hitch, and the cues during the ceremony went flawlessly—she even got down on her hands and knees to bustle my bride’s gown when our family was having difficulty with it. Calla was responsive to all our correspondence, met with me in-person, talked with myself or my wife on the phone multiple times, met with my parents in-person when they were in town, met with my in-laws in-person with coordination. The single damper in this whole experience was the interim organist, Jesse. If you want to get married here, and if Jesse Ratcliffe is still the organist, BYOO (bring your own organist). Our original organist, Robert, was wonderful. We met in-person and he was professional and very helpful with suggestions. We were disappointed when he had to leave for his new position in DC. In comes the interim, Jesse, two weeks prior to the wedding. Jesse displayed his unprofessional attitude at the first communication. He was super demanding in his emails and demanded a Zoom meeting with me and my fiancé by September 12th. Myself and my now wife commute a great deal for work and I was traveling that week for business and had to close out several tasks before I took my leave for 3 weeks. We unfortunately couldn’t accommodate a Zoom call in the timeframe Jesse demanded. We were able to answer all of Jesse’s questions via email, we kept our language positive and tried to answer to the best of our abilities. Jesse NEVER responded—not even to acknowledge our answers. My wife tried to be gracious and supposed that perhaps he was the kind of person who sounds short in written communication and might be better in person. My instincts that Jesse was unprofessional, however, proved correct when we met him for the first time at the rehearsal. It was our understanding that we were to be at the church at 4 o’clock for the rehearsal. The door was still locked at 4pm. By the time the wedding party, who was still trickling in because they were busy unloading the reception set-up, Jesse confronted my bride, stating rudely, “We were supposed to start at 4!” My wife replied that we were here at 4 but the door was locked. He still insisted “no, we were supposed to start at 4!” If I had been in the room at the moment to hear this, I would have fired him on the spot and tagged-in my wife’s nephew (who is a talented professional musician in Nashville) to play the beautiful sanctuary piano instead. Jesse was rolling his eyes and rubbing his brow during the whole rehearsal and even made a snide comment to our officiant (an Archbishop who is personal friends with St. James’ Rector, by the way) about not running through the scripture readings. Even though we started late, we still finished roughly on time right around 5pm. The day of the ceremony, Jesse’s unprofessional attitude continued and he continued to make rude comments about the time and openly acted like he didn’t want to be there. Dude, you’re being paid, be a professional. After returning from our honeymoon, we were told by family that Jesse made snide comments about my wife not exactly making her time cue for her entrance. Again, if this was something I heard first-hand, I would have fired him on the spot. In closing, the church- AMAZING, the Parish hall- AMAZING, Calla- AMAZING AND THE BEST!! 100% recommend Calla for ANY wedding and event planning!

Very welcoming place for worship. The St James table is open for all!

St. James offers a warm and inviting environment. All are welcome. For years, I was extremely hesitant to join a church. While a believer in God, my experience with organized religion has been traumatizing. The entire staff and congregation are welcoming and not intimidating. I am such a believer in this church and its ministries that I am now on the Fellowship Committee.

Fr. Ben is a caring and insightful leader. Church community is welcoming. Beautiful place of sanctuary and renewal. I've been a member for a decade with no plans to leave.

Beautiful church with wonderful, non-judgemental people. Truly enjoy the sermons, the beauty, and the people. Father Ben is awesome.