News & Updates

The June edition of the Together monthly magazine is now available.

You can get your copy right now by clicking here to either view or download.

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Take a look at the new Peregrine pages of the website here. With four eggs laid in March this year, three hatched on 27 April and the fourth the next day. The Peregrines progress has been of great interest to the thousands of visitors who have been visiting Luke Jerram’s Gaia exhibit.

30 April 2023: Sad news this morning regarding the chicks as one died overnight. It had been looking weak on Friday and as it didn’t appear to feed on Saturday—it clearly wasn’t well.

You can see short video clips here.

21 May 2023 11.00am

 

The APCM and the meeting for the election of Churchwardens will take place immediately after the 10am service on Sunday 21 May.  We will be electing two Churchwardens, three Deanery Synod members and six PCC (Parochial Church Council) members. Please consider whether you would like to fill any of these positions. Nomination forms will be available at the back of church from 3 May 2023.  Requests for reports will be sent out shortly.

9 April 2023

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

You are warmly invited to join us at Taunton Minster to celebrate the great Feast of Easter ~ The Day of Resurrection!

Please see the poster for our three service times on Easter Day.

The 6am dawn service is followed by a delicious hot breakfast. Watch the sunrise as we begin the service at the foot of the Minster tower warmed by the flames of the Easter fire.

For all the details about Easter Day Festal Choral Evensong at 5pm please click here.

The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
the passover of gladness, the passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.

Services for Holy Week are shown here.

Holy Week is the most sacred week in the Christian year. It begins with the commemoration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Wednesday, and climaxes with the commemoration of the Last Supper (Holy Communion) on Maundy Thursday and the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Jesus rested in death from the ninth hour (3 pm) on Good Friday until just before dawn on Sunday morning, the day of his resurrection from death, commonly known as Easter Sunday—The Day of Resurrection!

The eagle-eyed among you – or maybe the peregrine-eyed? – may have noticed that since November 2021 our iconic 50 metre tower has been missing one of its four weathervanes. If you hadn’t noticed, then take a look – the one pinnacle standing empty can be seen not just when standing in the churchyard looking up, but also from far away.

Why have been weathervane-less? Simply because the iron work of the original had failed and was in danger of falling, so it was intentionally removed. There have been lots of unavoidable delays in getting the weathervane refurbished, but the gilding work is now complete, and a new replica mast has been fabricated. Today, conservation specialists were on site to reinstate the weathervane. Alas, further unforseen problems were encountered—some of the original ironwork embedded in the pinnacle has corroded and failed and some specialist engineering work will be required to renew this. Doing this work at 50 metres up is quite an undertaking.

So, with the Peregrine season fast approaching (when we are required to avoid any disturbance tower-top) it means a further delay to the weathervane’s return, both until later in the year and also for when an engineering solution can been found. Then there’s the challenge of funding this new, unexpected and costly phase of work too……..

However, you can see in the photo here the newly gilded weathervane looking stunning….albeit at ground level.