Dear Friends,
2002 marks the Golden Jubilee of the Accession of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and the celebrations being planned for June give us as ringers an opportunity of a prominent role in leading the Nations rejoicings and thanksgivings as the bells ring out from our towers in town and village alike.
For my own particular parish it will be a particular joy to be joining you in celebrating this as a new ringing tower for the first time, as plans to install a light ring of six bells are now close to fruition. Our new treble bell was cast in February to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee, and the bells and new frame are scheduled to be installed in March, so by the time you read this I hope that we at St Barnabas in Southampton will be providing the Guild with a new ringing tower, which will be the first in the Winchester Diocese for many a decade. This will have been achieved in no small measure by the support and encouragement given by the grant from our own Bell Restoration Fund, which gave a significant impetus for bringing this project to fruition. Your efforts in fundraising for the BRF have helped many a project get off the ground in recent years, and for this we must be thankful, and I hope ourselves encouraged and determined to achieve much more in the future.
As a Guild we are well placed to meet the challenges and opportunities that will come our way. Our Education Committee is being active in arranging ringing courses in our Districts in the two Diocese, and the opening earlier this year of the Bishopstoke Ringing Centre funded by the grant from the Founders Company gives us an important resource for the future, if we are motivated to make full use of the opportunities it provides. All you have to do is ask; it’s there for your benefit and use.
So rejoice with the Nation in the Queen’s Jubilee; rejoice with St Barnabas as we install our new bells; and as St Paul tells the Church in Corinth in the words used in Purcell’s Bell Anthem, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice”.
Barry J Fry