After Protests Over All-Day Ringing, Manhattan Church’s Bells Chime All Night

The bells, from the Church of Our Saviour in Murray Hill, left some neighbors bleary-eyed and prompted them to accuse the church of retaliating against them after an article in The New York Times about the dispute over the bells was published on Saturday.

“It woke us up from a dead sleep,” said Lorraine Hack, who lives across the street from the church.

In September, the church increased its bell-ringing regimen, after a new pastor, the Rev. Robert J. Robbins, arrived. For years, the church had been ringing bells twice a day, at noon and again at 6 p.m. But Father Robbins began a regimen of hourly chimes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., consisting of the same hymn followed by a chiming of the hour.

The pastor had not responded to neighbors’ claims to scale back the bells but had made his defiance plain in church newsletters, calling neighbors’ complaints “anti-Christian.”

And so the assumption among some neighbors, after being awaked early Monday just after midnight by a new round of bell-ringing, was that the new regimen of all-night bells was retaliation for their complaints to the new pastor and to The Times.

The bells kept many of them awake much of the night, they said. Ms. Hack said her restless night affected her performance at her job on Monday as a corporate recruiter.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I need my job.”

After being contacted about the ringing by a reporter, Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, contacted Father Robbins about the nighttime ringing. The pastor, Mr. Zwilling said, called it a mechanical error and was apologetic about the disturbance it caused.

In email and phone messages, Mr. Zwilling said the church’s system was being repaired in the hope of preventing another night of bell chimes. As to whether the regimen of hourly chimes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. would continue, Mr. Zwilling said Father Robbins gave no indication it would change. The pastor did not respond to messages seeking comment on Monday.

Ms. Hack was a bit dubious of the claim, saying that “the timing is uncanny.”

“These quote-unquote mechanical issues are an unbelievable coincidence,” Ms. Hack said, “and we still have significant issues that we have not heard back on,” referring to their request to have the chiming scaled back.

Yahoo Local News – New York Times

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