A member of St James’s Church is simply someone who regards our church as their spiritual home!
But we need to unpack that a bit before we get to the Electoral Roll because, oddly, there is no definition of what constitutes ‘membership’ of a parish church in the Church of England. We recognise that a ‘member’ is someone who fulfils one or more of the following three criteria :
- They attend church at least monthly (or are former attendees who are now housebound)
- They are on the Electoral Roll
- They participate in our Planned Giving Scheme (which covers folk who may not be on the Roll and who can’t for some reason attend monthly).
So the Electoral Roll overlaps with our concept of membership. (In case you are wondering, we had to think this through when constructing our Data Protection Policy, where we needed to differentiate between ‘members’ and ‘contacts’. )
The Electoral Roll
This is a parish church’s register of electors. Being on the Roll means that you can vote at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) and stand for election to the PCC.
The “Parochial Church Council of the ecclesiastical parish of St James, Taunton” (to give the PCC its full title) is the body that is legally recognised (alongside companies, trusts, and CICs, etc), as being allowed to open a bank account, hold utility and other contracts and so forth – i.e. it looks after the money you donate. The PCC is charged with “promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the Church”, in cooperation with the vicar. PCC members are also Charity Trustees, and need to ensure that we are adhering to best practice in the day-to-day workings of our church according to the guidelines set out by the Charity Commssion.
So, joining the Electoral Roll is an important way of confirming your commitment to our church community and to the vision of the church, beginning with making sure that suitable people are elected to the PCC.
It also opens up the way for greater involvement in the life of the Church of England, at deanery, diocesan and national levels. Taunton Deanery includes all the Anglican churches and chaplains in the town and many of the surrounding villages; at the Annual Meeting we elect representatives to the Deanery Synod. Those representatives then elect members of the Diocesan Synod (for the Diocese of Bath and Wells) and also diocesan members on the General Synod of the Church of England.
Applying to join the Electoral Roll
Firstly, you must meet ALL the following conditions:
- You must be aged 16 or over (though you can apply in the year you become 16 and your name will be entered once your birth date has passed).
- You must be baptised.
- You must be a member of the Church of England and EITHER live in the parish OR have attended a church in the parish regularly for at least 6 months.
2025 Renewal of the Electoral Roll
The Electoral Roll is revised every year before the Annual Meeting.
Every six years the Church Representation Rules require the Electoral Roll to be completely renewed. 2025 is one of the years this needs to be done. We will remind all members of the existing roll to apply afresh, using one of the methods above.