unringable vicars
  • Oliver Lee
    28
    the other night I was chatting to a friend about silent towers and quite out of the blue he brought up a sad incident that had happened at his former home tower , he's told me this story several times before but as I want to find a way of resolving it I thought I would share it. a couple of years ago his church got a new vicar and whilst relations seem to have been fairly amiable to begin with this all changed after somebody living near the church complained about being woken up by service ringing, although the local band did the right thing and kept the sound control shut in the direction of his home this apparently wasn't enough and the next time the band arrived for practice they were told bluntly by the vicar that all service and practice ringing had been suspended because of this complaint!, whilst I can understand that bells are legally the property of the Incumbent this is a massive overreaction to what is a seemingly minor issue not only has it resulted in this tower becoming silent but it has also damaged the trust between ringers and clergy with my friend claiming that they won't do anything until she's gone which I think is something of a defeatist attitude. as I really hate seeing my friends get upset I want to try and help but as I have no experience of unringable vicars I was wondering if anyone might have any tips or ideas on how to approach this?
    Oliver Lee Options
  • Lucy Chandhial
    148
    Most Associations have someone in an Officer role who can help a tower captain to talk to a vicar about handling noise complaints. It’s useful to have an Officer of the Association to support because that keeps it relatively objective (rather than locally emotional) and demonstrates the level of organisation in ringing which aims to keep bells ringing without unduly upsetting the neighbours. So my first suggestion for your friend would be to talk to a district or Association officer and ask for support to set up a meeting with the vicar to discuss the complaint and the impact on ringing. There are some helpful guidelines on the cccbr website (https://cccbr.org.uk/resources/stewardship-and-management/dealing-with-complaints/ ) which can also help but if the current position is a kind of stand off with a lack of communication then it makes sense to bring in someone more objective if they want to re-open the discussion.
    Lucy Chandhial Options
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to your Ringing Forums!

If you would like to join in the conversation, please register for an account.

You will only be able to post and/or comment once you have confirmed your email address and been approved by an Admin.

Sign In Create Account

Categories