For Whom the Bell Tolls: Practitioners’ Views on Bell-Ringing Practice in Contemporary Society in New South Wales (Australia)

Abstract

For centuries, religious buildings have been using bells to call the faithful to prayer. Bell-ringing activity on church premises does not serve a purely religious function, however, as people in the community may perceive this activity secularly, attributing their own meanings and significances towards these sounds. If bell ringing (or the actual sound) were found to have great significance to a specific community, denomination, or a regionality bracket, this may have future implications in any management of these resources. There is a need to hear the voices of the actual practitioners and their perceptions regarding what they, their congregations, and their host communities feel. This paper represents the first large-scale assessment of the views of practitioners of five major Christian denominations with regards to bell-ringing practice and its role in contemporary society.

Anthropause on audio: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on church bell ringing and associated soundscapes in New South Wales (Australia)

“…Unlike soundscapes that are a by-product of human activity and thus sensitive to changes in that activity (e.g., aircraft and traffic sounds), church bell ringing creates a soundscape that is directly influenced by purposive human action. We have shown elsewhere the myriad of values imparted by society on church bell ringing in NSW, being both religious and secular in origin ( Parker and Spennemann, 2020 ).…”

“…Our original study used a mixed methods approach to solicit information pertaining to the presence/nature of church bells, frequency/occasions on which they were rung, augmented with opinions and value judgments regarding bell ringing. While full results of the study are reported elsewhere ( Parker, 2018 ; Parker and Spennemann, 2020 ), we wish to highlight important results from this snapshot of 2018, to make a direct comparison to practices currently occurring due to imposed restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…This is reflected in a reduction of ambient traffic noises [e.g., Hastreiter (2020) ], but also in a reduction of community-wide signal sounds, such as church bells ( Eggington, 2020 ). Building on research conducted during the pre-pandemic period ( Parker and Spennemann, 2020 ), we will examine the impact of implemented public health measures on religious soundscapes in New South Wales (NSW) (Australia).…”

Contemporary Sound Practices: Church Bells and Bell Ringing in New South Wales, Australia

“…and "Is there anything you would like to add about the history of tower bells on your church premises?". Other freeform comments investigated values, perceptions and attitudes of the respondents, but as these data are reported elsewhere [36], we have not included these questions here. See Figure 2 for a flowchart summary of methodological processes.…”

Addendum: Parker, Murray, and Dirk H.R. Spennemann. 2020. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Practitioners’ Views on Bell-Ringing Practice in Contemporary Society in New South Wales (Australia). Religions 11: 425

“…The authors would like to make the following corrections in relation to the published paper (Parker and Spennemann 2020). The changes are as follows:…”