The bells at St Thomas ring out a warning
We are perhaps more used to church bells ringing out to celebrate a wedding or to call people to worship, but they have also traditionally been used to warn of impending danger. This time, the ‘impending danger’ is seen as the climate crisis.
As part of ‘Ring out for climate’ St Thomas church, Salisbury, joined other churches in ringing their bells to signal a ‘code red warning’ for humanity ahead of the COP26 Climate Change conference.
Tower Captain, Nigel Orchard, aged 74, led a band of 10 bell ringers to sound out a signal at 6pm on Saturday 30th October with their eight bells, the heaviest of which weighs a ton and a quarter and is over 300 years old.
Nigel lives with his wife, who is also a bell ringer, near Milford Hill and has been the Tower Captain for five years. Not only has he taken part in bell ringing (which is classified as a sport!), but he has also worked in the power industry.
“....at one point I was the manager at Fawley Power station and they’ve just about finished demolishing it now. It was good when it was built in the 60’s, but of course it’s not good for the environment. We’ve got a lot, lot further to go.”
The bellringing band, like so many others across the diocese and the wider Church, struggled during Covid as some people were nervous about getting together, but not for this event: i
“I have had no difficulty getting ringers for this particular session because they feel so strongly about climate change. St Thomas has always been a church that looks outwards to the community and tries to play an active part of it.” Nigel reflected.
You can read more about the bell ringing at St Thomas here.
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