The hymn Let bells peal forth, which we sang just before the Gospel is a general version of one written for the Cathedral at Durham to celebrate the re-hanging of the bells there in 1980. Peter Baelz the writer of the Hymn was then Dean.

The Durham version has an additional verse which salutes each bell individually by name – because it is a custom that all church bells are ‘Christened’ or ‘Named’

I got to know Christ, Mary, Benedict, Bede and all the others quite intimately because for a time my kitchen window was but feet away from Durham Cathedral’s central tower.

There is no doubt about it, if you want to live near a Cathedral you have to like bells!

Thankfully, that is not a problem for me and it may be because years ago I made friends with a couple with whom I ran a youth club in my early twenties. They were fanatics about bells and I was introduced to the joys of a magazine called ‘Ringing World’ which I am please to see featured on the table by the small exhibition.

I was introduced to the mysteries of Bob Major, Little Bob Minor and Steadman Triples but sadly my interest remained academic rather than practical.

Yet that cannot be true because bells are an integral part of Church life.

They have been so since about the year 400 when Bishop Paulinus introduced a peal of bells into his Church at Campania in Italy.

The art of bell-ringing, known as Campanology, takes its name from this town because initially, metal for Church bells came from there.

The use spread rapidly until it is virtually universal throughout Christendom.

One of my favourite stories about bells concerns the 17^th century priest and poet – George Herbert – whose hymns we often still sing.

A saintly priest, now commemorated in our Anglican Calendar, he was, for a time, Rector of Bemerton in the Salisbury Diocese.

There he led a devout and holy life and twice a day he would walk with his family to Church where they would gather with other members of the congregation to pray the Offices of matins and Evensong.

Before beginning prayer, George Herbert would toll the church bell.

His biographer, Isak Walton, wrote that when he did so, the workmen in the fields would let their plough rest…that they might also offer their devotions to God with him.

I like this story because it is a reminder that church bells are rung primarily to call people to prayer.

Call us to worship, call us to obey,
Call us to pilgrimage along life’s way

Writes Peter Baelz in his hymn.

The bells remind us that the Church is about to engage in its central reason for being here – to lead people in worship of Almighty God.

So, Sunday by Sunday, week by week, day by day, even possibly around the world, hour by hour, church bells are sounded in honour of Almighty God and as a call to Worship.

And, like the workers in Bemerton’s field, they can be used as a signal to all around that, even if prevented from being in Church, they may bow their heads in prayer and join in the Church’s constant and ceaseless round of Worship and Praise. A Prayer and Praise which goes on whether we take part in it or not.

Within Worship the Church bell is rung in many churches at that point in the Eucharist when the Bread and the Wine are consecrated.

This is not just a quaint ceremonial. In more devout times people who were ill or housebound would join the Church in worship by reading the service at home and when they heard the church bell they knew that we had come to the most solemn and central part of our worship.

Another reason that Church Bells are rung is to mark times of celebration. So the ringing of bells at weddings is quite common, marking that particularly joyous rite of passage in a very special way.

There are other times when the celebration is on a bigger scale as was the case last Sunday.

Churches were requested by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion to ring their bells at 5pm – the time of the fly past over Buckingham Palace –as part of the Victory 45 Celebrations.

So, our bellringers gathered in the tower  with representatives of our Local Royal British Legion and joined the Nation in ringing a celebration of the 1945 Victory.

Church Bells are also rung in times of danger, more so in the past than today but, like the beacons lit on hilltops they warned of  invading armies or when other dangers threatened.

And, of course, they are often rung to signal death.

One of the most moving sounds is that of the ‘Passing Bell’. A single bell is used and rung slowly, sometimes muffled, at a funeral, particularly as the coffin is taken from the Church.

In my previous Church, with its own churchyard, it was always a moving moment as the procession filed silently from Church to grave, the only sound being the ringing of the Passing Bell.

The great 17^th century Dean of St.Paul’s, a contemporary and fellow poet of George Herbert was John Donne. In a famous sermon, often quoted, he reminded his hearers that every death is a reminder of our own mortality and the sound of the ‘Passing Bell’ is a reminder that God calls us to live a godly life here whilst we have the gift of life for it will be too late afterwards.

Our critical day,  says Donne, is not the very day of our death, but the whole course of our life. God does not say, ‘Live well and thou shalt die well… but live well here  and thou shalt live well for ever  A good life flows naturally into an eternal life.

So, says Donne:.

Send not to know for whom the bell tolls he said, for it tolls for thee.

The bell then is a warning bell.

It is also a Disturbing bell.

One of the problems that bell ringers face in our modern society is that they often get complaints about the noise they create. Strange that this should be common in an age which is probably the noisiest of all.

When I was Vice-Provost of Edinburgh Cathedral we used to have visiting bands of ringers who came on Saturday afternoon to ring the Cathedral’s fine peal of bells.

I dreaded it not because of the noise – I lived next to the Cathedral after all. My dread was that, inevitably, the telephone would ring and a usually irate voice would complain about the noise which was disturbing their Saturday afternoon leisure.

My response was always fairly standard. I would ask how long they had lived in the area and would then explain that the bells had been there since 1890. If you choose to live near a Cathedral expect to hear the bells.

But secretly I was glad that they had been disturbed.

Bells are, to me, a symbol of the Gospel in that they proclaim Christ - and the Gospel, if it is real, must often be disturbing – waking us from the complacency that so often besets our lives.

If we take God seriously then we must expect to be disturbed and challenged and awakened to the possibility of change and new life.

Every time the Church bell rings it speaks not only of what is going on in the Church building but of that other place where our hearts and lives are called to focus – namely the world of God.

In our increasingly secular society – one which, albeit fills its silence with as much noise as possible – there must be a place for something which calls to mind that which is beyond the immediate and which is the eternal.

The bells send a message to our world that the Church is about its business which is an eternal business of lifting souls towards their God and bound up with that is a bringing of the Gospel  of  Christ to the world.

Peter Baelz, in his hymn speaks of bells loudly proclaiming with each chime

How thine eternity redeems our time.

This turns everything around because our World has no meaning unless it is linked to God. Time is redeemed by eternity, human life finds its fulfilment in the Divine.

The world, pre-occupied with itself simply turns in on itself – as we constantly see with disastrous results.

But a world which is turned back to God discovers itself in pilgrimage – on a journey towards God. Time is redeemed by eternity and the eternal constantly breaks through to show us the way.

Bells, rung usually from lofty towers, are symbols of this. Their sound breaks through the clamour of the world and carried by the wind out from the belfry it showers the world with a reminder of God.

Reveal thy presence with us, gracious Lord, says Peter Baelz.

The action of the bell sounds is not unlike the sower in today’s parable who casts his seed of the Gospel in all directions.

But only those who have ears can listen and heed.

Bells, by their very nature are designed to be heard. And so are we.

Just as the message of the bell cannot be mistaken, so should our own message of the Gospel be as strong , as convincing and, yes, on occasions, as disturbing.

Whenever we hear our bells, thanks to our band of dedicated ringers, we should remind ourselves that as they remind  people to God and call them to the eternal, then so must we.