KAIROS Bells for Climate Justice

Bells All Over the Place!

2009-12-21T10:19:00.016-05:00

Another round-up of photos from the December 13 global bell-ringing for climate justice! Rev. Blaine Gregg writes that "at St. David’s United in Leduc, Alberta, the plan was to ring the bell 350 times after church. There were so many people, of all ages, wanting to take a turn that we reached 350 in no time at all. We paused and reflected on the work of climate justice and then people kept on ringing for the sheer joy of it (it was the third Sunday of Advent after all). I suspect the St. David’s Bell rang close to a thousand times."

In Strathmore, AB, the United Church and St Michael's and All Angels Anglican got together for an ecumenical noise-making.

Rev. Paula Ashby writes, "This was an amazing, powerful and incredibly moving experience to stand together and share in the ringing of the bells in tandem with churches around the world. Our hope and prayer is that our leaders are listening to the voices of the people they represent. When we look into the eyes of our grandchildren, we will be able to share the story of how we acted to protect God's creation."

They lined up in the bell-tower at St Cuthbert's Anglican in Toronto to take turns ringing the bell.

And at St. Peter's Anglican in Winnipeg, as well!

Fenella Temmerman tells us "The temperatures were around -25 and that was the day one of the new furnaces heating the hall and belfry decided not to work. So that explains why we look so very frozen in the photo! Also, very posed!"

Children took the lead at Garden City United in Victoria.

While over in Sechelt, Janet Tufnall and Jill Halliwell mimed ringing the electronically controlled bells. 350 rings took 19 minutes!

In Rothesay, New Brunswick, the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception held a ritual at the Villa Madonna Retreat Centre.

The bell at St. Andrew's United in Port Loring, ON was covered in snow, but still raised the alarm.

Tambourines and bells of all kinds at St. Paul's United in Golden Valley, ON:

The folks at St. John's in Elora, Ontario write: "A small gathering we had, but a very thoughtful one, and in talking it up and advertising the event we hope that a few more people know a few more facts about the number 350 and its significance. Maybe it was a small splash, but there were ripples enough."

St. Andrew's Presbyterian, Ottawa, flung the doors open wide and rang the bells with enthusiasm.

The Parish of Central Kings in New Brunswick wrote, "We are a rural parish and therefore we are very aware of the effect of climate change on agriculture and how poor crops lead to poverty."

A great, colourful turn-out at St. Saviour's Anglican in Nelson, BC.

Sounding the bells at St. Mary's Anglican in Nanoose Bay:

More children and more dogs at St. Andrew's United in Matawatchan, ON.

St. Luke's Anglican Magog, QC:

St. Andrew's United in Kaslo was part of a community-wide ecumenical effort.

Joyful ringing (and dancing!) at Fairview United in Halifax.

Another St. Andrew's! This time in Golden, BC:

Chalmers-Castle Down United Church in Edmonton:

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Cranbrook, BC:

Trinity United in Capreol, ON:

Trinity-St. Andrew's United Church in Brighton, ON:

Brandon, Manitoba:

Blenheim United in Blenheim, ON:

And Christ Church in Alert Bay, BC.

More Bells! This Time, East to West!

2009-12-16T11:21:00.021-05:00

Our first posting of bellringing stories took us from Vancouver Island to Central Nova Scotia. This time we'll go the other way round -- and we're still waiting to hear from Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick! And how about Nunavut, NWT, and Yukon?

Everyone at Resurrection Lutheran church Halifax, NS, was given a jingle bell during worship and encouraged, wherever they were at 3pm on Sunday, to stop and ring their bell.

Over in Truro, First United has a BIG bell ...

And a lot of kids to ring it!

A loyal friend helps with counting the rings in Milford, NS.

Canine involvement seems to be a recurring them in the bellringing. Shades of Pavlov? Togo the dog helps Philippe Gaillard, Susan Gardner and Angela Gaillard at St Francis Assisi Roman Catholic parish in the Diocese of St Jean-Longueil.

It takes a lot of effort to ring this bell at St. John's United in Tweed, Ontario.

In Orillia, the congregation from St. John's United wrote of how moved they were to be part of a world wide initiative, and how disappointed they were when the bell-ringing was finished! John Amesbury from the Peterborough area sent us this colourful report:

WE BROKE THE BELL! St. John's Church, Ida, sits on the brow of a hill overlooking pastoral, rural Ontario near Peterborough. It was mild, but raining with snow mixed in. 20+ people had stayed behind after our annual Christmas pot luck lunch to ring the bell for climate action. Because the church tower is in need of some major repairs, it was decided to ring the tower bell only 4 times during our "action"(each time being rung 15 peals). In between, our ringers stood on the front steps of the church and rang a school yard bell by hand (15 times each).This gave an opportunity for our event to be truly intergenerational.

At any rate we came to the last ringing of the tower bell. The ringer gave a huge pull on the rope, pulling it off its pulley -- the rope extended on the floor and the bell continuing to ring on its own until it ran out of steam! Now someone has the unpleasant taask of climbing into the unheated tower to set it all right again. Some, I'm sure, wondered who would hear our ringing efforts, but I like to think in Scriptural terms. Their sound is gone out to all lands.

At Beach United in Toronto, they drummed as part of the service and then out in the rain:

In Beamsville, ON, ringers from age 7 to their late 80s showed up to ring the bell at Trinity United. The young woman below took the lead and rang the bell 150 times herself, others chipping in for the remaining 200 chimes. Trinity reports that "It took only about 20 minutes to ring the bell in our church tower 350 times ... it may have been more because the kids really got into it! Not only did it support the KAIROS initiative, it was tons of fun to get folks together who had never had the opportunity to ring the bell."

The Dufferin KAIROS group rang the bells in Shelburne.

And a lot of joy was had at Richmond Hill United! St. Mary's Anglican also took part, providing hot chocolate for the curious.

Methodical ringing --and recordkeeping!-- at St. Jude's in Oakville. They say "we're quite ready to keep ringing people's bells, so to speak, as more initiatives are created in this vital effort."

In London, Ontario, cold weather kept them inside at Good News Church:

In Thunder Bay, Knox Pruden and St. Paul's United Churches rang their bells, while the Unitarian Fellowship banged pots and pans. At St. Andrew's United in Sioux Lookout, they played the carillon and beat tambourines 350 times. Winnipeg was busy. Here are a few shots from St. Benedict's Monastery and St. Andrews River Heights United Church.

More bells in Nelson, BC -- this time from the Cathedral of Mary Immaculate:

At St. Matthew's Anglican in South Slocan, they turned out from age 14 months to 94 years, and everyone took a turn ringing the bell. Church warden Sharon Speirs writes, "The villagers were curious, and began to talk about what it meant, so it worked!"

A little further down the road, it was nothing but handbells at Castlegar United!

KAIROS Salmon Arm activist Anne Williams Morris rings the bells at St. Mary's Anglican-United in Sorrento, BC. Verna Nitsche writes that "First we had to clear this event with our local volunteer fire department--saying that this would not be a distress call as in maybe the church burning down, but rather a distress call for our planet Earth."

In Hope, BC, candles were lit in a vigil for the crucified earth before the bells rang out at Christ Church Anglican.

Everyone crowded around the doorway to help at All Saints Anglican in Mission:

The Quaker Meeting House in Vancouver gave your blogger her favourite story (so far!): "Quakers don't normally ring church bells, so it was quite a revelation to get out the ladder and ascend the old (used to be Baptist) bell tower for the first time in God knows how many decades, only to find a very old church bell there which we rung 350 times for climate justice. We're going to be doing more of that now that we know how wonderful it sounds! Thanks to KAIROS for inspiring us to make this discovery!"

Here's the Green Team at St. John's Anglican Church in Squamish:

Saltspring Island must have been a wall of sound, with the United Church, Unitarian Fellowship, and All Saints By-the-Sea Anglican in Ganges, and St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Fulford Harbour all making a noise or ringing bells.

Parksville-Qualicum Beach was just as busy. Bells were rung 60 times at St. Mark's in Qualicum Beach in the morning, and then 350 times at at 3:00 pm at St. Anne's in Parksville, Ascension in French Creek, and St. Mary's in Nanoose Bay.

All in all -- a holy racket!

Ringing Out Danger, Ringing Out Warning ...

2009-12-14T14:06:00.013-05:00

On December 13, churches across Canada responded to KAIROS' call to ring the bells for a binding and just climate change agreement in Copenhagen. The target was 350 peals of the bell, 350 ppm being the maximum allowable concentration of carbon in the atmosphere before the effects of climate change become irreversible.

Ringing the bells at Trinity Anglican in Port Alberni, BC:

This group of children at Zion United Church in Armstrong, BC took it to heart!

Just as Zion's bells finished sounding 350, the Anglican Church took up the charge and its bells rang out too.

Kids got in on the action at St. Paul's Cathedral in Kamloops, too. Here they are at practice:

A few mountains to the east, the bells at Nelson United Church and at St. Mark's Anglican in Kaslo also sounded the alarm:

Harold Roscher leads children in drumming at Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Edmonton:

Elsewhere in Edmonton, the bells rang out at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, and down the highway in Calgary, at Christ Church Anglican. Ruth Lund writes, "We do not usually ring at this temperature; the belfry is a little - "lotle" - freezing! Too cold for pictures!"

In Lacombe, Alberta, it was -30 ... and the bell cord snapped at St. Andrew's!

Westminster United in Regina made a holy racket ... and may have had the lowest temperature: -47 with the windchill!

It was -35 with the wind chill in Gimli, MB, so the folks at St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church retreated inside after the bellringing where, over coffee, they formed an book-and-discussion group on issues of faith and climate change.

Lots of events in Winnipeg!

John Black Memorial United Church in Winnipeg held its event at 3:00 .... already getting dusky, so there were candles, too!

Northern Ontario was a hot spot for bell-ringing. Six people and one determined dog showed up to ring the bells at St. Paul's Lutheran in Magnetawan:

Trinity United in Marathon had an inter-generational turn-out:

And the bells were rung with enthusiasm in Nipigon:

Further south, in Hamilton, McNeill Baptist pushed the envelope. Al Palin (front left) writes, "Due to the age of our bell and tower the church had approved ringing the bell only 35 times, but we were enjoying ourselves so much the final count surpassed 350 rings. We truly made a joyful noise unto the Lord!"

Handbells at Stanford United in Niagara Falls, and at Glebe-St. James in Ottawa.

Marilyn Hamilton writes of Glebe-St. James, "There were truly 350 principal strokes, but many other smaller ones as we varied the rhythm. The sound was wonderful!"

Trinity St. Paul's United Church in Toronto has no bells, so together with tenant congregation Bathurst United, it spilled out onto Bloor Street with handbells, noisemakers, pots and pans, kazoos, tambourines, and a trombone!

The diverse ecumenical coalition in Newmarket marched all over town, stopping at various churches along the way. Here they are at the Church of the Nazarene:

Milford, Ontario:

In Palgrave, they celebrated the opening of the new community kitchen, and then beat the pots and pans for climate justice:

In Glenholme, NS, Linda and Murray Giddens dressed warmly to ring the bells at Erskine United ... and got a good cardio workout!

Central United in Lunenberg offered coffee to the community:

And the Teen Bits at Knox United Church in Brookfield NS sure did their part!

That's just a small taste of the hundreds of events that took place across Canada yesterday. As Robert Hart from Terrace in northern British Columbia tells us, this was an amazing, powerful opportunity for us to come together as a faithful, justice-seeking community:

We had an Arctic outflow ... a really cold wind blowing out of the north. But the low-hung sun was shining anyway and the bell atop Knox United was ringing crisply in the frigid air. Like the old Peter, Paul and Mary song, it was ringing out danger, it was ringing out a warning. But it was also ringing out love between our sisters and our brothers all over this land.

With this wind, we thought they could probably hear us in Kitimat to the south and we imagined that we could almost hear the Nisga'a in the Nass valley to the north of us ringing their bells too. We knew that seven hours to the east, Knox United in Prince George was also ringing and that bells had rung out earlier from Knox United in Colchester, Nova Scotia and later from another Knox United in Ontario, and other United churches and Catholic churches, and Lutheran and Anglican churches and faith groups one after another, all ringing. That's the brothers and sisters part I guess. ... Do it again next year?"

If you've got pictures or stories to share, we'd love to see, hear, and share them. Please send them along to me at sstratton [at] kairoscanada [dot] org.