From the Ringing Chamber
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| Three St
Marie's parishioners started learning to ring after attending
heritage visits to the Cathedral's bell tower. Their experience prompted an appeal for more ringers, initiated by Cathedral Dean Fr. Christopher Posluszny and backed by the Catholic Bishop of Hallam, the Rt. Rev. Ralph Heskett. The response to the appeal was way above expectations, presenting St Marie's with the problem of how to train around 10 novice ringers from scratch, when most towers have only one or two trainees at a time. |
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| Not only did the
Cathedral lack trainers of its own, the configuration
of its tower and the weight of its bells - the lightest of which is
heavier than all but four of St John's bells - mean that only two of
its bells can be used for training. St John's stepped
into
the breach and has been hosting two, two hour
training sessions a week for St Marie's novice ringers since February. |
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| Bob Rae, one of the
three
St Marie's parishioners who first started
learning to ring, said: "We are really grateful to St John's and its
team of expert ringing tutors. "Being able to learn on lighter bells, which can be silenced, and using the St John's simulator and video facilities in the bell tower has brought our team on in leaps and bounds. We simply could not have done it without your help." |
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| After five months
training at St John's, St Marie's ringers have now
been able to hold their first practice session using on the Catholic
Cathedral's bells. The team is continuing to learn at St John's, but hopes to be able to move training sessions to the Cathedral full time and to be good enough to ring for its services later this year. |
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Bob
Rae & Elaine
Scott |
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| (The articles above appeared in the Sept/2018 issue of Inspire) | ||
