Strangely, the period leading up to Easter is a rather quiet one for ringers, in every sense of the word. In common with most other churches we do not practice during Holy Week, we do not ring for any Services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday or Holy Saturday, nor do we allow visitors to ring our bells during that period. However, the bells rang out joyously as ever to celebrate Easter Day.
With Easter now behind us we look forward to an upturn in activities during May. Firstly on Saturday 10th May our ringers will be going on their annual outing. This year the venue is the area around Braintree in Essex where we will be ringing at six churches and enjoying a pub lunch. A report of the outing will appear in next month’s issue. Then on Monday 19th May we hope to be able to ring for a 12.30pm wedding; however at the time of writing we are experiencing difficulty in finding people who are available to ring in the middle of a working day, and we may have to bring in ringers from other towers to help. It should hopefully be easier to find ringers for the Ascension Day High Mass on Thursday evening, 29th May.
However the highlight of the month must be the visit of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers to ring our bells between 3.15 and 4.15pm on Saturday 24th May. The Central Council is the global governing body of bell-ringing and they will be visiting us during their Annual Meeting which this year is being held near Maidstone.
Other than the above, we will be ringing on our normal Tuesday practice evening and for the regular Sunday Services during May.