Churches to ring bells to remember those who have died

By CHARITY SMITH

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Ironwood - The Lutheran churches that are part of the Northern Great Lakes Synod are inviting churches of all faiths to ring their bells for five minutes starting at noon on Sunday, Nov. 1, as part of an All Saints Day ceremony, to remember those that have died, not just in their individual parishes, but across the country from COVID-19.

"We honor those people that passed in our congregation throughout the year, and then now this is the added for the COVID, which is the reason for the bell ringing," said Dorrene O'Donnell secretary of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Ironwood. "We wouldn't necessarily normally do the bell ringing on All Saint's Day. We wouldn't normally do that. So this is something a little more that we are doing this year to honor those we have lost due to the pandemic."

She said they are fortunate this year that All Saint's Day happens to fall on a Sunday. The church usually holds a service to honor those that have died on the first Sunday of November - All Saints Sunday, O'Donnell said. During that service the names of those that have died in the parish are read aloud and a moment of silence and prayer is offered after each name is read.

"This year I'm sure the pastor will be doing that again," said O'Donnell. "But we will be taking that five minutes for the bell ringing to pray because there is a lot of people and a lot of families that are grieving."

O'Donnell said that this year the people of St. Paul's Lutheran Church will be remembering four parishioners who passed, one of which died from COVID-19, along with the more than 220,000 people in the United States alone, who have died from the coronavirus.

She said they are inviting all churches to ring their bells for the five minutes. "Our Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and Methodist siblings in addition to all community churches are also being invited to remember the dead in this way," the press release from the NGL Synod said.

O'Donnell said that any church who wants to be a part of it, may do so. She said even if they don't have a church bell that they could go outside and ring any type of bell.

"Anyone who has a church bell or anyone who wants to bring a little bell and ring it. Or a bunch of people if you even had a bell choir. Wouldn't that be something?" O'Donnell said. "If they have a bell, if not, just ring a cow bell or a dinner bell, whatever you got. It's just in recognition. There's so many lives that have been lost."

The invitation to the other churches to join them includes a passage from Romans 14:8 "Whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's."

"May God comfort all who mourn as we surround the grieving with the warm embrace of communities of faith and the love of God in Christ Jesus," the press release said.