Thanks to the hard work of the parishioners of a local church, a historical church bell has been revived and installed in Riverview

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by Hanne Armstrong
This Week Staff

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The parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Riverview celebrates its 50th anniversary on Oct. 26. Two months ahead of that date, the church's bell tower was at last fitted with an interesting old bell.

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Photo Contributed

Workers installed the bell, seen below, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church last week. The bell orginally hung in St. Aloysius in Albert Mines, over 100 years ago, and was removed when the church was pulled down in 1918.

Photo Contributed

This bell once hung in a church in Albert Mines nearly 100 years ago.

"We had the bell all along," says Bob Betts, "But nobody thought about it until Father Jeff Doucette brought it to my attention when we were looking for a bell."

The Immaculate Heart of Mary church was built in 1992, with intentions of adding electronically controlled bells to the bell tower. However, the costs involved in such an installation were much too high, and the search was on for something more economical.

"This bell had been stored in our rectory since about 1958," Bob explains. "Before that it had been in a garage for eight years or so, and before that it had sat unused at Sacred Heart Church in Surrey for over 30 years. It came originally from St. Aloysius in Albert Mines."

All that now remains of St. Aloysius are some stone footings and corner blocks, beside grave markers from the late 1800's through the 1930's. The bell which rang this once thriving community to mass, to weddings, and to funerals, fell silent when demographics changed and the church was pulled down in 1918.

"The Riverview parish started as a mission church of what are now smaller, outlying parishes," says Father Phil Mulligan. "The roles gradually reversed as the populations moved."

Although the bell tower of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was originally designed with a motorized bell system in mind, the congregation has embraced the financial practicality and historical continuity of installing this venerable bell instead.

The funds to install the bell were raised in less than a year, and it will likely be blessed on the Sunday closest to October 26. The bell itself will be rung in the traditional way, by pulling a rope.

"Donald Alward at the Albert County Museum showed the bell committee how to work the museum's antique rope-making machine," says Bob. "We made a 75 foot rope the old-fashioned way, for our historical bell."

What about actually ringing the bell? How hard is it to ring a 150-pound bell located at the top end of 75 feet of rope?

"The timing has to be right, I guess," speculates Bob, "as you watch the rope go up and down. We'll have to learn how to do it."

As to how often the bell will ring, both Bob and Fr. Phil are sensitive to what neighbours may see as a noisy intrusion. Bob suggests it will ring for weddings, funerals, and special days like Christmas and Easter.

"I'd like to see it rung about a minute before Sunday mass," says Fr. Phil. "We might ask families to ring it together. It would focus us, just before mass."

No matter when the bell ends up being rung, and by whom, the bell of St. Aloysius, silent for 90 years, will peal once again from a church belfry. Perhaps it will even sound a bit of its past into the modern parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.