A ringing endorsement for Philadelphia church bells

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"City Council has spoken: The bell at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Manayunk most likely won’t be silenced.“You are preaching to the choir,” Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco told a neighboring minister who argued in favor of St. John’s bell ringing at a hearing Tuesday by Council’s Committee on Public Health and Human Services.

On Thursday, the full Council will consider the legislation, which would exempt churches and schools from Philadelphia’s noise ordinance. A final vote could occur next Thursday. Currently, exemptions exist for just aircraft, trains, and licensed fireworks displays. The church clamor began early last month when St. John’s pastor, the Rev. James A. Lyons, received a warning letter from the city Health Department. The letter, which followed a complaint that was filed, threatened the 179-year-old church with fines of up to $700 per day if the pealing bell was determined to be in violation of the city’s 2006 noise law.

At issue is the volume of the 7 a.m. bell ringing, which includes the 18 chimes of the Roman Catholic call to prayer, called the Angelus. Those same 18 chimes also ring at noon and 6 p.m., and the church bells ring as well every hour from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m."

philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20101006_A_ringing_endorsement_for_Philadelphia_church_bells.html
 
Notice how it only takes ONE complaint from some sourpuss to get the Health Department to move against a Catholic church. And funny how it took 179 years for somebody to notice that the bells are a nuisance.

I wonder: does a person with a good conscience have a problem with church bells?
 
Aw. That’s kinda sad. I live in Philly, and I think I heard about this (I don’t live in Manyaunk, though)…
I grew up right across the street from the local parish church in south philly, and I loved hearing the bells chime every day, they sound so pretty. heck, I used them as my clock;0)

Yeah, they are loud, but you get used to them…becomes white noise after a while, like the cop and fire sirens and buses riding down the street…and I would MUCH rather hear the bells, thankyouverymuch…
 
Victorious said:
Notice how it only takes ONE complaint from some sourpuss to get the Health Department to move against a Catholic church. And funny how it took 179 years for somebody to notice that the bells are a nuisance.
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For a couple years the bell did not ring. The complaint arrived only after the bell was fixed and returned to its regular hours.
philly.com/philly/news/homepage/102512604.html

I think it is easy for regular noises to fade into the background. The problem here is that the bell was silent for two years, and then began to sound again.
 
Gloria Alred is scheduled to make an appearance at the hearing with her client, Quasimodo, in support of the Health Dept. ordinance. “THE BELLS, THE BELLS…THE BELLS!!!”
 
I think the Angelus at six pm should be the latest ringing. However, I’m glad they did not try to stifle the bells.

Now, if it were some Muslims with a summons to pray in the morning, the conservatives would be utterly opposed to it!
 
Bells are a musical note. Some might be bothered by the volume, some might be bothered by the motivation of the bell ringer, but at the bottom of it all, it is a mechanical tone sound.

The amplified voice of a muezzin calling muslims to prayer broadcast from a loudspeaker atop a mosque minaret is, IMO, a different matter. Maybe I’m culturally biased, butI don’t think an exemption for a bell should automatically require allowing unrestricted amplified broadcasts of human speech or song.
 
I think that after the MOVE people and the bombing of the house, the folks in Philly are sensitive to the topic of amplified voice transmissions at all hours of the day.
 
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