The Soul of Christmas Bells

 

Near the wonderful conclusion of the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol (1951),  Scrooge awakens to the sound of church bells pealing to announce the birth of Christ on Christmas morning. The joyous clangour is the perfect backdrop to Ebenezer's reawakening to life's possibilities. 

 I love church bells and have heard ringers practicing changes at Canterbury Cathedral in Britain. A number of the churches I served had bell towers and functioning bells. And a couple of the congregations graced worship through dedicated hand-bell choirs. 

Often bells have been removed or silenced in creaky old churches for safety reasons. Sadly many of the older companies which have crafted bells for centuries are going out of business. Hand-crafted bells are expensive and in our age there are fewer and fewer churches which desire them. When you have a worship centre which looks like a big-box store, why would you need a bell? 

Master bell maker Antonio Delli Quadri, 83, was just 15 when he started helping cast bells inside Italy's oldest bell foundry, run by the Marinelli family in the town of Agnone. The workshop is one of five remaining foundries in Italy, which once boasted dozens. (Megan Williams/CBC)

You may have read or heard about the Marinelli family in Italy which has been making bells in the traditional ways for generations. They can trace examples of their work to the 1300's, but are sure that the family was creating bells for at least a couple of centuries before this. 

Their clients now include Buddhist temples and musicians,  but despite the world-wide clientele there are still the Christian roots. According to a CBC piece:

 The Marinellis refer to bells as "sacred bronzes" and describe them not as formed but "born," with the initial wooden and brick structure that gives shape to the inside called the "anima," or soul. To this day, a priest is called to the foundry to bless the bell, emitting a flurry of Hail Marys at the moment of fusion, when the bronze liquid is poured into the mould.

I am fascinated by this devotion to what is truly an art. The world will be a poorer place when these workshops cease to exist. 

I wondered whether our congregation, Trenton United, might sound the bell on Christmas Eve,  given that there won't be an in-person service because of the pending lock-down. It turns out that the tower is "all dressed up with no bell to ring." Alas!

I hope that you can get in touch with your inner Quasimodo during the next few days, and that the bells of Christ's hope ring in your heart. 

                                  Intricate decorations for the bells are carved in wax. (Chris Warde-Jones)