I will add to the blog entry below by mentioning that we rang our church bell for climate justice yesterday, along with churches around the world. We gave our recently reinforced bell tower a good workout by ringing 350 times, the number of parts per million of carbon dioxide considered an acceptable level in the atmosphere (we are approaching 390.)
We invited all present in worship, but particularly the children to ring the bell five times each on the way to 350. More than fifty individuals took part, the majority of them children, some very young. There were also several senior citizens. Thanks to Christopher who acted as our Quasimodo to assist the kids.
Did the children understand what they were doing? Most probably had only a vague notion, although they loved ringing that bell! Will ringing bells actually change anything? Not really, although this, to me, is part of the overall effort to raise awareness of a problem that is planetary in scope. A neighbour was curious about what we were doing, and it gave me the opportunity to explain the exercise.
What do you think? Are symbolic acts important or just whistling into the wind? Several parents are readers. What was the reaction of your children?
6 comments:
Actions speak louder than words, and I think this also applies to symbolic acts.
Interesting questions to pose to people of faith and coming from a person and leader of faith - especially when our faith's basic sacraments are all symbolic acts - baptism and communion.
What did the ringing of the bells accomplish? How many people heard the ringing bells and if they heard - did they wonder why and did they seek out the answer? The church I presently attend does not have a bell tower and yesterday at 3 pm - I did not hear any bells ringing but I admit my windows were shut.
And yet, I have performed and will perform symbolic acts/actions and I believe in symbolic acts/actions. I am just not sure if yesterday's symbolic act was heard or seen to have garnered the public's notice/attention.
I think symbolic acts are an important component of living and learning and "absorbing" our faith both consciously and subconsciously.
We had an interesting discussion that evening at dinner. My nieces, who were visiting this weekend, and had the chance to ring the bell were "complaining" about the changes that had been made at their school to their annual speech competition. This year their new principal had implemented that all grades would speak on religion (Catholic Board). The older sister's topic was further defined by "solidarity". "Whatever did religion have to do with solidarity?"she complained. We started to talk of what we had done by ringing that church bell, and the lights seemed to come on. Yes, it was a small, practical act that was seen as neat and cool and even "epic" by our kids but the experience filters into new, deeper understanding over time, as do many of our symbolic acts.
What a neat story Laura. We all seem to be agreement that symbolic acts matter, but hearing how one young person put things together is great.
My whole upper body was sore for about two days after that. But it was lots of fun.
You did a great job Christopher!
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