Episcopal Church bells ring again

Richard Tedesco

The bells are ringing again at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection.

An electronic carillon that had been installed in 1986 at the Williston Park church – formerly St. Andrew’s – had stopped ringing sometime during the 1990s.

The Rev. Christina van Liew, the priest in charge of the Episcopal parish for the past six years, said there was no way to repair them.

So last year, a committee formed at the church to find a company to install a new carillon. And in November, just in time for the Christmas season, Schulmerich Carillons, Inc. installed a new computerized electronic bell system.

It seemed an appropriate addition to the church, which was undergoing a spiritual makeover after St. Andrew’s combined with the Church of Nativity parish in Mineola six years earlier.

“In all that we have done a lot of reviving as an Episcopal church,” van Liew said.

The English bells toll a rotation of hymns appropriate to the season at noon and 6 p.m. daily, and to summon worshippers to 10 a.m. service on Sundays and Wednesdays in the church at 147 Campbell Ave.

“We didn’t want them to be intrusive. We wanted then to be a reminder that there’s a quiet place to be with the holy,” van Liew said.

The neighbors enjoy the bells so much, they’ve asked to have the volume turned up, van Liew said.

The pastor said the bells have helped draw a growing number of people to the church. That’s a response van Liew hoped for, but it wasn’t the church’s primary purpose in installing the carillon.

“It represents the new life we have here,” said Joan Servinskas, the senior warden of the congregation.

Her husband, Paul, is one of the two people in the parish who were trained by Schulmerich Carillons to run the machine that is programmed with 300 hymns and some secular songs for special occasions such as Independence Day.

“This is almost a full-time job,” said Servinskas, who is retired from his job with AT&T in Manhattan. “I never thought I’d be instrumental in turning on a carillon in a church.”

Van Liew said the transition the church’s resident carillon expert made is just part of the resurrection story.

“What ends leads to something else,” she said.

But in a more religious sense, she said the church’s name is intended to connote the lives her parishioners ideally lead.

“Resurrection is living life in God’s love,” she said.

She emphasizes that all members of the community are welcome to share in the sound of the bells, and the church’s bi-weekly services.

“Whatever their story’s been, they’re welcome here,” van Liew said.

On October 1, their pets will be welcome there too, for a blessing of the animals. The church is currently seeking sponsors to donate food for the occasion – for the people who attend, along with their animals. “All Creatures Great and Small” will be the hymn the bells play for that morning’s service.

The reverend will observe her six-year anniversary as the priest in charge of the church on October 23 in an evensong service.

“The bells will be playing,” van Liew promised with a smile.

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