Blantyre minister repsonds to complaint about church bells

Mar 11 2010 by Chris Clements, Hamilton Advertiser

THE minister at Livingstone Memorial Church has responded to a letter of complaint about the church’s bells, published in the Advertiser last month

The Rev. Fiona Wilson spoke out after the anonymous writer slammed the church for playing the electronic bells on a Sunday morning.

The writer described the Glasgow Road’s bell ringing as “excessive” and explained: “I stay close by and, every Sunday at 11am, the bells ring more than over 20 times.

“In this day and age, when people are working harder than ever, is there any need for excessive noise in the mornings at the weekend when people do eventually get the chance to rest?

“I’m guessing the regulars to the church will know that the service starts at 11am. Even then, people could be notified by text, email, Twitter or the likes of Facebook.

“If it was any other property making that volume of noise on a Sunday, they would most likely receive an ABSO.”

However, the Rev. Wilson this week defended the ringing of the bells.

She said: “Obviously I am biased about this but I think that if you live near a church then you should expect to hear bells.

“Those bells have been ringing for around 100 years. They are currently electronic bells which were gifted in memory of a member of the church.

“Basically, the letter amused more people in the congregation than it offended.

“I considered writing a reply to the letter, but chose not to, as it’s very easy to get drawn into political rows about this kind of thing.”

The Rev. Wilson added that to suggest the use of social networking sites, such as Twitter, would not be helpful to churchgoers.

She explained: “In terms of texting or using websites, the vast majority of the congregation don’t have that sort of thing.

“Anyway, the bells don’t ring to tell them when the service is. They ring to welcome people into the church.

“Obviously if we had an official complaint, then we would have to look at it but on the whole, many don’t see it as a problem. In fact, people often say how wonderful it is to be greeted by bells.”