The Bells! The Bells!

Many of you may have noticed that our bells have been back in operation for a few months. Thanks to the work of Douglas Yee, the Building Staff and others our bells started tolling again in November at 8 AM, Noon and 6 PM. The format for these "hour rings" is for a Westminster chime followed by the tolling of the hour. 

This past week, Thomas Paccard, of Paccard Foundries in France returned to fix an issue with one of the bells and now we have full use of all four bells.  Douglas and Tom Ferry, one of the members of the Bell Ringers Guild, have programmed the bells to announce the beginning of each worship service at the Cathedral. You will notice that before every worship service on Sunday and special services, the bells will ring for approximately 3 minutes. This beautiful cacophony is only one of the ways we will integrate the bells into the life of our worship.  

Soon the Bell Ringers Guild will begin pealing the bells at the end of worship, at weddings, funerals and other special occasions.  Next week during the 10:30 worship and Evensong, expect to hear the bells join us extensively during these celebrations of our 95th year as the Cathedral of New Westminster. If you are interested in learning more about the Bell Ringers Guild please get in touch with Diogo Portella at reception@thecatheral.ca.