Children's Chapel, St James' Church, Religious space for children at St James' Church in Sydney, Australia

The Chapel of Saint Mary and the Angels, known as the Children's Chapel, occupies one bay of the crypt of St James' Church, Sydney. Its walls and ceiling are painted with murals inspired by the carol "As I Sat Under a Sycamore Tree", with the Holy Family sailing into Bethlehem past Sydney Harbour landmarks, including the Harbour Bridge under construction. The scheme uses over three thousand leaves of gold leaf.

The chapel was decorated between October and December 1929 by Ethel Anderson and the Turramurra Wall Painters Union, a group she founded in 1927. The rector Philip Micklem invited the painters. The first service was held on 22 December 1929. The murals show the Harbour Bridge under construction, recording Sydney at that moment.

The murals illustrate the wassailing song 'As I Sat Under A Sycamore Tree', a variant of 'I Saw Three Ships', in which the Holy Family sails to Bethlehem with Saint Michael and Saint John as boatmen. Ethel Anderson set the scene in Sydney Harbour so that the story of Bethlehem would unfold in surroundings familiar to Australian children. The ceiling panels show fuchsias and flowering cedar in place of the sycamore of the text.

The chapel is accessible during regular church hours and holds monthly Eucharist services designed for children on the first Sunday of each month. The crypt location provides an intimate setting that feels separate from the main church above.

The walls contain approximately three thousand pieces of gold leaf that create shifting light effects as the day progresses. These reflective surfaces reveal new details in the harbour scenes depending on when visitors come and where the light falls.