Church Bells

When I was a child we lived in downtown Ottawa. Every Sunday morning Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring I would walk the 5 blocks to church with my parents, each of them holding one of my hands. It felt like a special time, I guess because it was a set routine. The church was a large brick building built around the turn of the century. It is still in use today and in good shape.

There is another part to the church not shown in this photo. It was almost as tall and housed the church basement (where Sunday School was held), the hall which was like a gymnasium and stage and on the top floor lived the caretaker. Among other jobs he was the one who rang the bells on Sunday mornings and on other special occasions like weddings. 

Now I live on the other side of the country and this is the church I go to.

This church was also built just before the turn of the century but is wood rather than brick. There are extensions to one side and to the back which hold the offices, sunday school, worship center and nursery. Amazingly enough this church was raised at one time to allow a bottom level to be added to house the Sunday school. Buildings here have no basements. Then when they added the additions the church was lowered again. It survived amazingly well for a building of that age but there are cracks in the plaster ceilings. 

There is no caretaker's apartment because we have a part time cleaner that comes in, men from the congregation do small repairs and there is no need for someone to ring the bells on Sunday morning or at any other time. In fact it is illegal to ring church bells. It is considered disturbing the peace. People actually complained enough at one time that it was necessary to enact a law. We are, however, allowed to cut our lawns, use chainsaws, leaf blowers, power saws, etc on Sundays.  

The church bells in our church have been rung once in the 15 years I've attended. That was on a New Years Day when the bells played a non religious tune to welcome in the New Year. And the church had to jump through hoops for 6 months just to get a permit to ring the bells for 10 minutes. 

I'm at a loss to understand this. Part of Sunday morning in downtown Ottawa was listening to the bells of all the various churches. I miss them. The bells don't just announce church services, they also announce weddings, as I said above, and some ring every day at noon. In Ottawa and Vancouver they fire a cannon at noon, and in Gastown the steam operated clock whistles at noon. Why is the sound of cannons and the loud whistles of clocks preferable to the comforting sound of bells?  

Just something I'm contemplating on today.