How one Just Stop Oil supporter’s net zero obsession tore a church apart.
Rural church has been left in the cold since 2023 when ‘activist’ energy adviser refused to install a boiler.
Janet Eastham Acting Religious and Social Affairs Editor. Natasha Leake. DT.Mike Burrell (left) and Peter Robinson (right) have blamed the cold on John Beardmore, the diocese’s energy adviser who supports the activist group Credit: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian Just Stop Oil’s paint-throwing activists have blocked motorways, sabotaged petrol pumps and glued themselves to priceless art.
Now, The Telegraph can reveal that the environmental group’s influence has reached a rural Peak District parish – leaving a historic church in the cold.
St John the Baptist in Tideswell has been without central heating since Storm Babet wrecked its gas boilers in October 2023.
Peter Robinson, the 79-year-old church warden, and his associate Mike Burrell, 75, have blamed the cold on the Diocese of Derby’s strict interpretation of Church law – which they claim has been driven by the views of an “activist” energy adviser who openly supports Just Stop Oil.
The Telegraph revealed on Saturday that the Church of England’s pledge to achieve net zero by 2030 has left at least two dozen parishes without heating for months at a time.
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In July 2022, the General Synod, the Church of England’s legislative body, introduced new rules that will make it harder for churches to install new gas and oil boilers.
| | Church of England reprimands parish for buying gas heaters instead of ec...The Consistory Court of the Diocese of Newcastle branded Holy Cross church in Fenham, Newcastle, ‘embarrassing’ |
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