Bells to ring out again in uptown Saint John

Saint Johners will likely be familiar with the sound of the Trinity Church bells. They rang out from the uptown church every hour, half-hour and quarter-hour — until one day, they stopped.

The timekeeper, long part of the Saint John way of life, halted its chimes about 18 months ago because of technical problems caused by humidity.

Now efforts are underway to get the bells ringing again by Christmas 2024.

The bells go back to the 19th century. When the church was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1877, a nine-bell system was installed, said Rev. Steven Scribner. This increased to 12 bells, and on Christmas morning of 1882, they rang out for the first time.

In the mid-1960s, Scribner said, the church's manual system, which had people using levers to operating the bells, was updated to an electronic one. 

And that's where the problems began.

"As we know, electronics don't like humidity, and over time that system started to fail," Scribner said. "So a year and a half ago, we had to make the tough decision to silence the bells, because there were just a number of the notes or individual bells that were just not acting properly."

After silencing the bells, the church secured the latest technology to replace the 1960s system, one that woulds stand up to the humidity. 

Repairs to the stairs to the bell tower have already been made, but several phases of the project remain before the bells will be heard again.

These include replacing the hardware in the clock.

It is not the first time the Anglian church has faced troubles. In 2016, the skyline staple faced a dwindling congregation and financial shortfalls, and in 2019, cracks in the steeple had to undergo major repairs, which also temporarily halted the bells. 

Kyle Wells, who is part of the campaign to restore the bells, said that after moving to Saint John, the ringing was one of the first things he noticed about the uptown.

"When they went silent, I just thought to myself, 'What an incredible loss to this community' because people rely on those bells to keep them on time," he said.

"We hear stories all the time about people, you know, getting to their appointments by the bells, the fisherman looking to the clock in the harbour, you know, just a plethora or reasons to keep those bells going."