GLENWOOD — Pam Gardner is disturbed to the point of distraction every time a bell rings.
Gardner’s property backs up to Mother of Good Shepherd Monastery, where the monks ring a pair of bells five times a day as a call to prayer. Residents of the rural area west of DeLand complain that the bells ring incessantly and so loudly that their windows rattle.
"This has really affected our lives," said Gardner, who lives on Ben Franklin Drive. "When I hear the call to prayer, I pray for those bells to stop."
Gardner is one of 31 residents who showed up at a Glenwood Civic Association meeting Monday to try to find a way to silence the bells.
The controversy began when three monks moved their monastery from Peaks Island, Maine, to an 11-acre tract at 2075 Mercers Fernery Road in June 2004. Two bells, one of which weighs 4,000 pounds, are rung at 8 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Volusia County code-enforcement officers cited the monastery for running a religious establishment in a residential neighborhood. The monks stopped ringing the bells and hired an attorney, who convinced county officials that federal law required them to allow the monastery in the neighborhood. The bells resumed in December.
Residents who live near the monastery complain that the bells toll anywhere from 60 to 300 peals each ringing. Ross Kasparek knows precisely because he keeps a list posted in his garage counting the number of rings.
"If I blow my horn or play loud music, there’s an ordinance to stop me," said Kasparek, who lives across the street from the monastery. "But they are really obstinate; they won’t stop."
Some residents said they look forward to the bell ringing.
Shirley Ann Sodaro, who lives on Trinidad Street, said she finds the bells "pleasant."
"I can’t imagine why they’re making such a big deal about this," she said. [Source]
23 comments
“Five Ringy-Dingys
LOL — I love this blog.
Those who hate the bells will simply detest Gabriel’s horn when he announces the end of the world and the final judgement.
I live in an area where we have had many fatal accidents between trains and cars as a dozen rail commuter lines come out of Chicago. The gates at street crossings are sometimes malfunctioning or some fool decides he cannot wait for a minute for the train to pass. As a result, the trains will blow their horns.
To me, it sounds fine. It’s not that often and the noise has a certain charm.
But there are those who literally are obsessed with their hatred of the occasional blasts usually near a wooded, commercial or industrial area. So they sepend their limited time on earth protesting these necessary warnings as if they were living right next to O’Hare International Airport.
Wasn’t there a case in Michigan recently where a court upheld the right of a mosque to use broadcast speakers with the muslim call to prayers five times a day?
I find it ironic that the woman who likes the bells lives on Trinidad (Spanish for Trinity) Street.
It would be nice if the offended people would use this as an opportunity for prayer in their own lives.
I live within one mile of three Catholic churches, and I have never heard them use a bell. Can anyone explain why they never use a bell? One of the churches is very old, so I assume that it at least has one. This is in Cambridge.
Reminds me of a song by the late Christian singer Rich Mullins:
And then the people in the town
said that they’d call the police
If we didn’t keep down
all this disturbin’ their peace
And Officer Black,
you know he answered their pleas
And he ran up on the hill just to see
Well he hid in the bushes
just a stone’s throw away
And then we all saw this change
comin’ over his face
He was bouncin’ to the beat
and started hoppin’ on his heels
Singin’, how do you do, how do you feel?
And then the townspeople asked him
if he’d make some arrests
Could they find some peace and quiet
so they could go back to bed
He said if it’s peace that you want,
you’re gonna find it on the hill
But the silence that you keep
is the silence that kills
(from Promenade, by Rich Mullins)
If we cannot stand the bells, God will provide us with minarets.
Wasn’t there a Monty Python sketch like this?
Some people just like to bitch. If it wasn’t the bells, it would be something else. Like the monks robes are too long, or they’re too heavy, and it makes people feel hot to look at them. Cry me a stink’in river…..
The church I work at has bells – electronic bells. They toll every hour from (I think) 7am to 9pm. They also play a couple of songs. You wouldn’t believe the amount of complaints we get about them being too loud. But it’s only from a handful of people. Lucky we haven’t gotten sued, I guess.
When I was assigned to my last parish (which had a nice set of electronic bells) I got a call from a nice lady who worked graveyard who asked me to turn them down a bit. It seemed like a reasonable request, so I did it. I then got 38 calls asking me to turn them back up.
Ya can’t make people happy no matter what you do, I guess. I think Lucy is right–some people just need something to whine about.
The bells, the bells!!! You should hear them from here, and me with my hunched back and all…
Still, maybe one of them has a beautiful Gypsie daughter…!
Five times a day, as a call to prayer, eh? I wonder how far the neighbors would have gotten with their complaints if it had been a mosque with a minaret, and the muezzin calling the local Moslems to prayer five times a day.
There are always going to be some complainers. In our previous parish there was one old guy who used to turn around and glare at me with a pained expression when I sang along with the hymns. Get over it, pal, nobody else objected.
Reminds me of a story over here in England – of the person who bought a cottage in a rural village and right next to the village pub. Then promptly slapped a writ on the publican for ‘making noise after 10PM! Right. Thats what happens in pubs.
Or the guy who bought a house on the village Green (different guy; different place) opposite the Village school, then sued the local school board for encouraging noisy kids.
Don’t you just wish people like this would get a life?
I lived across the street from St Paul�s Cathedral (MN) for two years. The bells there would play the Westminster Quarters (every 15 minutes during the day). When I moved, I was discombobulated for a bit�I never knew what time it was.
Saturdays and Sundays were rather intense. Before and after every mass (imagine the number of weddings) the bells would ring continuously for 15 minutes.
Even though I was flirting rather seriously with Marxism not to mention hedonism in those my college days, it never occurred to me to complain or to petition to have the church silenced. It all just became the background fabric of my day and the neighborhood I chose to live in.
Somewhere – whether I read it or my mother told me I do not recall – the demons in hell cringe whenever the church bells ring – for they KNOW what it means.
Next to the church itself, the altar, and the actual vessels used, the bells are the most holy of the objects used by the Church. In the “old days” there was an extremely impressive ritual (which I finally was able to obtain for my study) for their blessing. It was performed by the bishop and was popularly called the “baptism of the bells” – and fittingly enough, you see, as the bells announce the Holy Sacrifice and call men’s attention to God as the Apostles did.
My church here in Reading, PA has nine (an octave in D plus the C-natural) – they were founded in 1879 in Baltimore. They ring the Angelus, and also strike the Hour of Mercy (3PM) followed by a hymn.
The mosque in Hamtramck, Michigan, is ringing its bells 5 times a day. Complaints from local Catholics went unheeded.
I’m not there to hear them I live across the street from 2 churhces with big bells, I like them fine, and this guy MAY be a whiner, BUT—
This is NOT like the guy moving next door to a pub and then complaining about the noise.
The monastery just moved in, to what is obviously a residential neighborhood.
I’m glad they convinced the authorities that they had a right to be there, but I don’t think it follows that they have a right to bring a large amount of “new” noise to the neighborhood.
My new parish has a manually-rung bell. I guess we only ring it as a call to Sunday Mass. I would like to automate it that we might ring the angelus (at least noon and evening) as well as daily Mass! The neighboring parish has an electronic carillon and they ring the Westminster chimes as well as the call to daily Mass and I think, the noon and evening angelus.
I see the point about the monks moving into a neighborhood (rather than having been there long) but indeed, the ringing of the bells could be an opportunity for evangelization!
I would like to do some research on this mosque business in Dearborn (or was it Hammtramck – which was once a Polish enclave?)
I’m not especially sympathetic to claims that amount to I-was-here-first. When you buy real estate, the only guarantees you get are those that run with the deed on the property. The time to complain about a monastery (or a bar, or any other non-residential enterprise) is when the application for the zoning variance is under consideration. It requires a certain amount of attention to city government proceedings, but they don’t keep these things secret. (Our local paper has a column announcing such things.) Once the application has been submitted to public comment and been granted, that ought to be the end of the matter.
“Ross Kasparek knows precisely because he keeps a list posted in his garage counting the number of rings…”
Doesn’t this smack a little of having no life?
As we know, certain of the Little People can’t stand running water or the sound of bells. Clearly, some of these Good Folk have moved to suburbia….
Fr. Totton:
It was Hamtramck, yes used to be a Polish community. Pope John Paul II visited it in 1987. They’ve haven’t toppled the momument commemorating the visit … yet.