For whom the bell tolls

Jane Bowen from St. Mary’s Conwy brings us today’s reflection, based on the famous poem from which this title is taken. From my years of working in Liverpool Cathedral, with its heaviest and highest peal of bells in the world, I cannot but be reminded of the sonorous depth of sound its biggest bell makes: ‘Great George’ (which at 14.5 tons is bigger than Big Ben and second only to that of St. Paul’s in London). The tolling of that bell for a funeral, would echo across the city – whether that was in honour of one of its more famous sons and daughters, a member of congregation or a local resident. It would stop people in their tracks and in some way ‘join us together’ as the community had loved and lost.

Jane develops this beautifully, locally and for what we are experiencing now.

Bells of Liverpool Cathedral

by Reverend Eryl Parry

Wrth gwrs, os cyflawni gofynion y Gyfraith frenhinol yr ydych, yn unol â’r Ysgrythur, “Câr dy gymydog fel ti dy hun”, yr ydych yn gwneud yn ardderchog.

Iago 2: 8

You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

James 2: 8

Jane Bowen writes:

This well-known passage of his was delivered to me by a book club member who has been sending out short stories, poems and observations each week. I was so taken with it and its current relevance that I wanted to share it:

“No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”

from Meditation XVII