Whatever Happened to the Church Bell?

The sound of the Church bells calling the faithful to fellowship is all but gone in America. I remember about 10 years ago, when I moved to my present location, that on Sundays off in the distance I could hear those Church bells ringing. Now Sundays are quiet and no bells call to the faithful, no reminders of fellowship time, no reminders of the presence of a fellowship in your neighborhood. Not that I'm saying I wanted to go to those IC/DC's (institutional churches or denominational churches). It's simply a sign of the times that the influence of Christianity is waning.

What has happened to the Church bells?

It's not so much the bells themselves, but the symbol they represented—they spoke of a nation's commitment to go to Church or fellowship. It called the faithful to a time that was separated for God, and it rang out the convicting tone of faithfulness and service to God as a witness to the heathen.

Some examples:

"The tower, which dates from c1400, is thought to be unsafe. The tenor bell may well have been hung soon after the tower was completed and is one of about ten "Royal Head" bells left in the county…The fittings are derelict, with the wheels and stays missing, and the headstocks decaying. The tenor has now been hung 'dead' by Arthur Berry." (Abbots Morton, S Peter)

"[Church Bells in the background] I wish those bloody bells would stop! Oh, it's quite nice, dear. It's Sunday - it's the church. What about us atheist! Why should we have to listen to that sectarian turmoil... You're a lapsed atheist, dear. The principle's the same !... Bleedin' C of E. The Muhamedens don't come around here waving bells at us!. We don't get Buddhists playing bagpipes in our bathroom. Or Hindus harmonizing in the halls. The Shintuist don't come here shattering sheet glass in the bathhouse and shouting slogans!" (Church Bells Sketch, Monty Python)

Have we lost the tradition of Church Bells? Those melodious chimes that beckoned us to early church or late afternoon even-song?…The bell had its own personality, a soft pleasant ding-dong quite different from the Methodist church bell which while equally pleasant, had a deeper tone. It was easy to distinguish one from the other. The custom was to ring the bell 15 minutes before the service, that was the first bell, then to ring it again 15 minutes later. If you arrived at the church after the last bell had rung you were late…To my young mind there was an urgent message in that summons compelling me to act promptly. If you sang in the choir, when you were older, you answered the early call, this gave you time to don your robe, check the hymns and find your place in the choir formation. The bell also had another function. This one quite somber, that of tolling at funerals. When the bell tolled it didn't ring the familiar ding-dong but made one steady clap, the ding part alone. The church caretaker, known as the sexton, was trained in controlling the bell to make this mournful sound. As the body left the church, or sometimes the residence, if the service was from the home, en route to the cemetery the bell started to toll. I was always told that it rang the number of years of a persons life. At the sound of the first toll everything in our small town stopped. Whatever you were doing you paused, bowing your head momentarily as a gesture of respect for the deceased." (Church Bells, http://www.uni.edu/~elder/bells.html)

"So we come to the next tower in the Mystery Tower series. These bells were removed and the tower demolished some years after this photograph was taken. It also looks like one of the horses has gone AWOL!" (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE CHURCH BELLS OF KENT)

"I'm looking for help in silencing a neighborhood church bell. It rings every hour on the half-hour. I see it as noisy advertising. Advertisers put up billboards to attract attention to their businesses. Churches sound bells for the same reason: to attract people to their churches. The church bells are more obtrusive. If my dog barked every hour the cops would be there. How can a church get away with such noise pollution disturbing the neighborhood?" (Zyzzyy, Noise Pollution From Church Bells, February 29, 2000)

In America we have been accustomed to disdaining the Church bells for the simple reason of guilt and inconvenience. It has been silenced because our people are bent on self and "their" little space. Bent on removing God from the landscape.

"The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me." (Deuteronomy 28:20)

"And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim." (Judges 10:10)

"Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more." (Judges 10:13)

"But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back" (1 Kings 14:9)

"Saying to a stock, Thou [art] my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned [their] back unto me, and not [their] face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. But where [are] thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for [according to] the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD." (Jeremiah 2:27-29)

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