Once again, church bell in Bridgewater will sound call to worship
(Rose Lincoln for The Boston Globe)
Reverend Esther Rendon-Thompson, left, and Charlie Brandes, Office Coordinator beside the newly restored church bell at Central Congregational Church in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
BRIDGEWATER - For a generation, the old bell sat silent, in tarnished glory. In its creaky belfry, it bore the indignity of being replaced with canned, electronic chimes, first from a monstrous tape deck, then a computer program. High atop the town green, the stately treasure bided its time and hoped for a shot at redemption.
On Sunday morning, the bell will toll again, its deep, rich peals calling the Central Square Congregational Church to worship for the first time in more than two decades. They will be sent forth not by digital systems, but, as they were before, by children gleefully tugging on a sturdy rope.
“Last Sunday with the computer, this Sunday with the children, the way it used to be.’’ said Rev. Esther Rendon-Thompson, the church’s interim senior pastor.
Cast in 1862 by a Boston craftsman, the church bell rang true for 120 years before its rusted, splintered foundation finally succumbed, becoming too fragile to withstand repeated bell strikes.
For five years, the bell tower was hushed, until an East Bridgewater church donated an electronic carillon, a bulky contraption that played recorded hymns and hourly chimes. But in 2007, the dated device went on the fritz, giving way to a used Dell computer and a customized software program.
It was an ingenious and surprsingly sweet-sounding solution, many churchgoers and local residents in this bedroom community south of Boston agreed.
But two neighbors thought the historic bell deserved better than to waste away in a wind-swept tower where pigeons nested.
Requesting anonymity and accepting nothing in return for their labor, the pair brought the bell back to life, strengthening its underpinnings with new bolts and wooden shims and reorienting the pulley system, as reported this week by the Bridgewater Independent. They replaced the rope and secured it in plastic tubing, sending it straight down to an easily reached loft above the sanctuary. They put in new wire screens, to keep the birds away.
The two men, who are not parishoners, spent countless hours in the tower, emerging grimy and weary at day’s end, church officials said. When they were finished, the weathered-gray bell chimed as if no time had passed, putting its artificial rivals to shame and harkening back to the Civil War era.
“They thought that if the church had a bell, especially such a historic one, everyone should be able to hear it,’’ Rendon-Thompson said in her native Venezualan accent. “We are very grateful to them, but they didn’t want to take the credit.’’
While Sunday marks the bell’s formal return, Rendon-Thompson and Charlie Brandes, the church office coordinator, climbed through the dusty rafters yesterday, up winding staircases and a lengthy ladder to hear it firsthand.
“Much more resonant,’’ Rendon-Thompson remarked in satisfaction, as the bell’s commanding echoes rumbled through the early afternoon air. “That’s the real sound.’’
After this Sunday’s service, parishioners plan to ring the bell 350 times as part of the International Day of Climate Action. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about global warming. The 350 figure represents a target threshold for carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million.
The church hopes to raise $350 so it can buy 35 energy-saving flourescent bulbs, as part of a yearlong effort to adopt eco-friendly practices.
The children, meanwhile, are raring for a chance to pull the rope with all their might, in hope it might pull them back.
“My boys are really looking forward to it,’’ said Brandes, whose sons are 9 and 6. “I think the rope might lift them right off the ground.’’
