| ALASKA | MEDFORD, MASS. | OHIO |
They Stir the Soul and Leave a Ringing
in the Ears. by
Wines, Michael
SYNOPSIS: Describes the
church-bell ringing at the belfry of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in
Moscow, Russia. Statement issued by bell-ringer Andrei Mikhailovich Dorokhin; Destruction
of Russian belfries by the Soviets; Comparison between Western church bells and Russian
church bells.
Does your faith ring a bell?
SYNOPSIS: Considers the power of church bells' sound to transport people to grace. What church bells symbolizes in the Dark Ages; Church bell restoration effort in Brooklyn, New York City.
The sound of church bells has the power to transport us
to grace.
WE ROUNDED THE HAIRPIN
TURN ALONG the footpath above the Italian hill town. The sunlit farmland below was as
luminous as a stained-glass window. Cypress trees doused the air with the fragrance of
holiness. My husband began singing an aria, and the echo was a choir. A butterfly's yellow
wings flickered like the flame of a votive candle. But none of this prepared me for the
sacred moment I experienced as we reached the top: the ringing of church bells.
I knew not the pitch nor
the melody nor the rhythm. I only knew that they rang for me and anyone like me who needed
an awakening of faith, to hear the sound of the Holy Spirit being poured out from on high.
It was then I realized that if anything could stop my day in its tracks and summon me to
pause for prayer, it was a bell. A church bell. Not the door bell or
telephone ringing. Not the alarm clock or oven timer. Not the computer or fax or any
mundane noises that reminds me I am of this world. Only a delicate, high-pitched sound
from the heavens could transport me to a moment of grace.
When I returned to the
States, not only was I eager to read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and For Whom the Bell
Tolls and watch the Hitchcock film Vertigo, with its dramatic mission bell-tower scene,
but I was even more determined to listen for church bells in
my Brooklyn neighborhood. Perhaps they were ringing and I just didn't hear them.
My own parish doesn't
have a bell tower, though with modern technology there is no need for a tower, a ringer,
or even a bell for that matter. There are companies that install a speaker system on a
rooftop as easily as a satellite dish.
I went to Mass at a church
down the street with a bell tower and bell. Rumor had it that the priest saying Mass rings
it. Oh, did I have visions of climbing the ladder to the belfry one rung below him-so
close to the bell that I could have tugged the rope myself. Seems the church
did have a mechanized carillon, but it broke down years ago. I heard about yet another
Catholic church nearby that has a working carillon on a timer. The following
Sunday I went to Mass thinking this was going to be the glorious day. I would ignore
matters of timbre and tuning, which was no effort at all since I'm practically tone-deaf.
I wouldn't care how crude the bell, how uneven the quality, how limited the range, just so
it rang. And it did.
Then I began to wonder
why more church bells weren't ringing. After all, we're not
early Christians in Rome who must worship in secret or fear persecution by the state. Church
bells have been a public voice ringing as a call to divine worship since the
fourth century, according to some sources. Hand bells and then larger tower bells
were rung to indicate the eight canonical periods of prayer and devotion in monasteries.
The bigger the better, so farmers out in the fields could hear them. In fact, some were so
heavy, apparently it took more than 50 men to ring them. In the Dark Ages, they were a
symbol of hope and progress. Later the clash of several bells ringing at
once signified joyous feasts and eventually different bells were used for
different reasons, be it to announce the type of service and sermon preached or as a
reminder to fast.
According to a Brooklyn
diocese spokesperson, there are church bells in disrepair all
over the borough-and country no doubt-and little funding to fix them. I was inspired to
learn that didn't stop a church in Brooklyn from asking phone company
volunteers to restore theirs. And to ward off complaints from neighbors who somehow
associate them with urban noise, they moderated the volume and don't ring them for
early-morning Mass.
Some say that bell
ringing is making a comeback these days. Those trying to revive it are, in their own way,
continuing the work of Aaron in the Old Testament who wore gold bells along
with colored tassels in the form of pomegranates on the hem of his robe when he entered
the temple. Though it was easier to listen for it on an Italian hillside because the
bell's celestial ring reflected the pastoral setting, I find a wake-up call all the more
uplifting in the manic pace of a big city. Maybe because I have a farther climb up.
Of Many Things by George M. Anderson, S.J.
SYNOPSIS:
Discusses the ecumenical campaign called `For Whom the Bells Toll' in Medford,
Massachusetts started by Sr. Dorothy Briggs. Purposes of church bells in the past;
Cardinal who conceptualized the idea of tolling the bells when a state executes a convict;
Stand of the Catholic Church about death penalty; E-mail address of Briggs.
Down through the
centuries, church bells have served a number of purposes: to
warn the community of impending dangers, to mark celebratory occasions like weddings and
sorrowful ones like death. With death by execution in mind, Dorothy Briggs, O.P., in
Medford, Mass., has begun a national ecumenical campaign called "For Whom the Bells
Toll." Her hope is that churches and other places of worship will toll their bells
for two minutes at 6 p.m. on the day of an execution anywhere in the country--not only for
the person being executed, but also for the victims and their relatives. For churches
without bells, the campaign can provide a "For Whom the Bells
Toll" banner to be hung near the front of the church.
Sr. Briggs told me that
the idea originated with Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines. He asked churches to toll
their bells on the day of an execution as a sign of mourning for any
state-sponsored death there. The concept was taken up in 1999 by Bishop Walter Sullivan of
the Diocese of Richmond, Va., who wrote to all the Catholic churches in his diocese to
begin this practice "on the evening of every execution until we bring an end to this
inhumane practice." By calling executions an inhumane practice, Bishop Sullivan is in
line with all the U.S. bishops, who have spoken out strongly against capital punishment-as
has Pope John Paul II. In a joint statement issued by Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles
and Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore before the date originally set for the execution
of Timothy McVeigh, May 16, they said that the death of Mr. McVeigh "is about every
man, woman and child in the United States...[because] when the federal government executes
Timothy McVeigh, it will do so in our name." They go on to emphasize, moreover, that
use of the death penalty "diminishes us as human beings."
The tolling of bells
is therefore not just a sign of mourning for those put to death; it is also a warning for
all of us who are subjected to this form of diminishment caused by state-ordered
executions. The title of the campaign is especially appropriate in this context. It comes
from "Meditation 17," by the English poet John Donne: "No man is an
island.... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." Each execution is
thus a tolling for the diminishment of something in ourselves, a tear in the fabric of our
common humanity.
The campaign, which began
in September of 2000, has been steadily picking up strength. Over 200 churches in 31
states have agreed to toll their bells each time a condemned prisoner is put
to death. A number of non-Catholic churches have also begun to support the effort. Robert
M. Moody, for example, the Episcopal bishop of Oklahoma City, is encouraging the churches
in his diocese to take part: "This is an opportunity for the churches...to express
that life is being taken," he has written. "To say nothing and let it go on with
nothing being said or acted on seems irresponsible." Like the Catholic bishops, he is
calling for a moratorium on executions.
Much of the support for
the campaign has come through the efforts of religious women, who have been spreading the
word throughout the country. For people who hear the tolling but do not know what it
means, a teachable moment presents itself. Sr. Briggs gave the example of a student
walking across the campus of St. Catherine College in Kentucky. Hearing the tolling of bells,
she asked: "Did one of the sisters die?" The sister of whom she asked the
question then explained the meaning. Support for the death penalty has dropped in the past
few years, but a majority of Americans--including Catholics--still favor it. All the more
reason for church leaders and pastors to join the For Whom the Bells
Toll campaign.
Ring in the new. by
Hall, Valerie
SYNOPSIS: Explains how and why the pealing of church bells in Great Britain will help us welcome the 21st century. Mechanics of bell ringing; Different time lengths for bell ringing; Bell ringing in Dorothy Sayers' book `The Nine Tailors
Ringing in the
changes. by Melanie Train & Magali
SYNOPSIS:
Discusses the grants given by the Ringing in the Millennium project of the Central Council
of Bell Ringers in Great Britain. Details on the bells of Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire;
Role of church bells in British life; Details on change ringing.
Living by the Bells. by Sally Cole
SYNOPSIS: Presents an anecdote about an unbeliever who live by the bells of St. Dominic Catholic church in Lakeview, New Orleans, Louisiana. Reminiscences of revealing her religion in grade school; Choice of a Unitarian church during her mother's funeral.
Church Bells Of the 1800's Peal
Again. Anon. New
York Times , 06/14/99, Vol. 148 Issue 51533, pA21, 0p
SYNOPSIS: Reports
the church bell-ringing test conducted at Saint Mark's Church in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. History of the bells; Comments from John Trenberth, one of the church bell
ringers.
The bells of
Balangiga. Anon. Heritage , Spring98, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p43, 1/2p
ANON.
SYNOPSIS: Reflects on the massacre of American soldiers stationed in Balangiga, Samar during the Philippine American War. How the Americans retaliated with the massacre; Confiscation of the two church bells used by Filipino soldiers to signal the start of the massacre; Efforts being taken by the Philippine government to retrieve the bells.
The bells of Balangiga. by Alexandra A. Seno & Antonia Lopez. Asiaweek , 01/09/98, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p27, 1p, 1c
SYNOPSIS: Reports on the Spanish church bells which were torched in, in a 1968 massacre, while highlighting a request by President Fidel Ramos for the bells to be returned to Balangiga, for the centennial celebrations of Philippine Independence. Indepth look at the history of the bells; When Ramos first asked for the bells; Who the request was made to; Information on Ramos actions when he became president of Philippine.
Alaska remembers April 1955.
Anon. Alaska , April97, Vol. 63 Issue 3, p15, 1/9p
SYNOPSIS: Recounts Great Northern Railway
president John M. Budd's shipment of 450-pound bell in response to former Alaska Army
engineer John E. Carrol's request in April 1955. Need for a bell in the chapel in Point
Barrow.
A 50-year-old prank takes its toll. Anon. Chronicle of Higher Education , 9/26/97, Vol. 44 Issue 5, pA11, 1/8p, 1c
SYNOPSIS: Describes how the clapper to the Ohio Wesleyan University chapel bell was returned after being missing for 50 years. The clapper having been stolen by an undergraduate student; The student's guilt over taking it and not returning it; The letter which accompanied the clapper upon its return to the school; The clapper being to the university's 130-year-old bell in the university's Grey Chapel.