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| "Built in 1787, the Congregational Church on Thetford Hill is the oldest meetinghouse in continuous use in the State of Vermont." Peter Blodgett, Librarian, Thetford VT. |
The Ringing of the Bells
SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror
From my pew in the choir loft of the First
Congregational Church on Thetford Hill I looked at the comfortable, timeworn
church, mismatched chandeliers hanging over the sanctuary, on the pulpit a
solitary candlestick holding a lighted candle. I was there to give witness to the annual “Ringing of the
Bells”.
“The oldest tradition established in the United
States is the ringing of bells on July 4.
Minutes after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the
historic Liberty Bell rang out the good news: the United States was a free
country. That happy moment had
been awaited under high tension by most of the inhabitants. When the Liberty Bell rang forth,
thousands knew that the deliberations had been completed, and they now lived in
a free land. Other bells soon
picked up the good news, and as the sound was heard, a chain of bells carried
the news (across the new country).
Thus began the tradition of bell ringing, which has been kept in many
places, including Thetford Hill, ever since.” William E. Worcester, Thetford Vermont 1980
At about 11:30 pm on the evening of July 4,
2012, 47 people, dressed in ‘Vermont casual’, gathered
in the choir loft to celebrate the 236th anniversary of the United
States. Some had come by car; some
had walked up the hill carrying candlelit lanterns to light up the night. The lanterns had been placed on the rails
of the choir loft and gave soft illumination to the sanctuary below. Pilgrim Hymnals and copies of the
Declaration of Independence were in front of the pews.
Each person, by turn, read aloud from the
Declaration of Independence until it had been read in its entirety. Each voice giving strength and meaning
to words written 236 years ago. It
was a serious moment of passing the values of one generation to the next as the
children of the community of Thetford learned the values of the nation from
their families and their neighbors.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed.”
When the reading was complete the community
turned to the Pilgrim Hymnal to sing three verses of America the Beautiful,
accompanied by the organist, Mrs. Alice Pierson, at 93 the oldest of the bell
ringers present. Couples and
families stood together to sing, blending high and low voices. The meaning of the words made new
again by the strength and caring in the singing.
At midnight the church bell, created long ago by
a foundry in Troy NY, tolled 12 times.
Each person then took a turn pulling the bell rope and when done went outside
to the Town Green in order to better hear the clear sound of the pealing of the
bell, 236 times, once for each year of our nation.
With the last sound of the bell, the group
returned to the choir loft to sing “My Country, tis of Thee”, also in the Pilgrim
Hymnal, and the Woody Guthrie song, “This Land is Your Land”, with the words
printed on a handout. After
appreciation and applause for Mrs. Pierson, cookies were shared and everyone
headed out into the pleasant night air of the Vermont summer.
“The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen
United States of America, July 4, 1776”, The Declaration of Independence, is
the founding document of the United States. 56 men, representatives chosen from each of the thirteen
colonies, signed the Declaration.
I looked at the names of the men who signed, among them two men who were
to become U.S. Presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; the inventor and
Statesman Benjamin Franklin; and, of course, John Hancock.
Without the public reading of the Declaration I
wouldn’t have remembered the final and solemn words, “…we mutually pledge to
each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
I thought about those men, wondered at what it
might have been like to sit among them, marveled at their bravery and was
reminded that it is my responsibility, our responsibility, to pass on to the
next generation a belief in the rightness and value of liberty and the
obligations of a government to its people.
