People’s Emergency Briefing
Taunton Minster Environmental Task Force and St James Eco Church Group are jointly hosting a People’s Emergency Briefing on Tuesday 23rd June at 6pm (over by 8:15pm). This is a short film, followed by a facilitated discussion, based on the National Emergency Briefing on the Nature and Climate Crisis, held by experts in their field with Politicians, Scientists and other influential people in November 2025.
The initiative is explicitly non-partisan and supported by a wide range of organisations, including the Church of England (and our local diocese), National Trust, WWF, the Royal Meteorological Society and many others.
Admission is free, but it would help planning if you could let us know you are interested using the link below.https://www.tickettailor.com/events/stjameschurchandtauntonminster/2212366
For further information, please talk to any member of the environmental task force.
Heating the Minster
Your environmental task force have been busy the last few months.
As you may remember we were awarded a stage one demonstrator grant last year.
This has enabled us to have a detailed options appraisal for different heating systems which will help bring us towards ‘net zero’ and be more reliable than our current gas boilers (those of you who regularly use the upper room will have felt the chill recently!), and keep old father Willis happy.
The preferred options is to use air source heat pumps, linked to our current heating circuit, plus a few extra radiators, with some additional infra red for the cafe.
Some of the extra electricity this will require can be backed up by solar panels and batteries.
We have now appointed an engineering company to do detailed designs, an architect to support pre planning and faculty permission, a structural engineer to check the roof will cope, National Grid to review electrical requirements, and commissioned a bat survey!
This team will help us decide where to position the pumps (on the roof or in the churchyard?), and the next steps.
Fundraising
The next step for us will be fundraising – watch this space, we will need your support and prayer.
Bike Racks
We continue to work towards getting bike racks installed in the churchyard, to encourage sustainable transport, and help protect our listed railings!
We have put in faculty applications, had several meetings and discussions with the County Council, and have a small grant from the Town Council towards costs.
We really hope to deliver on this project over the next year.
Churchyard
We have a close relationship with Somerset County Council in maintaining our churchyard. We are actively managing it to give more space for wildlife. This involves allowing some areas to grow, whilst mowing others, planting and caring for new trees, donation of a small pond and monitoring of the new species which has been incredibly rewarding.
