Can you help us get heating back in our church?

'The Anglican Church of St Thomas à Becket in Hamburg is part of the Church of England. We’re a multinational community of all ages and an important contributor in Hamburg to the integration of people from all over the world. We also help young people of mixed backgrounds to find a community here.

We’ve been in Hamburg for over 400 years, making us one of the oldest Anglican churches outside the UK. We’re entirely self-supporting, and proud of our beautiful listed neoclassical building, opened in 1838 and then funded by public subscription, the 19th century version of crowdfunding. But we’re less proud of our ancient heating system, which feels as old as Noah’s Ark and has now broken down completely.

We’ve got to replace the heating and this is our chance to reduce the carbon footprint of our building, inspired by the fifth mark of mission of the church: to 'strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth'. But first we need to get some good advice on how to do it, and good advice costs money which we don't have very much of. We need urgently to commission a technical survey to point us to what to do for the best to reduce our CO2 emissions and find out how much it will cost. We estimate we need €10 000 to get us on our way.

Can you help us reduce our footprint?