I've not seen a good thread on bells in a while and thought it might be interesting to have a thread to explore how fully developed bell ringing is at various of our parishes. There are a blessed few I know with trained bell ringers with good sets of bells that make for a splendid enrichment of the liturgical life of the Church, and there are other parishes with just one or two bells which hardly do more than simple tolls when they have someone willing and available to do them at prescribed portions of the service.
In my parish its sort of small set with semi self trained zvonars (bell ringers) coordinated by use of a baby monitor in the altar (so we can hear the cues for when to begin and stop)
Please share your experiences, hopes and aspirations for your parish as they relate to bells following.
As a point of inspiration, here is just about my absolute favorite Orthodox bell video on youtube…if we could come even close to that…even just on feast days…it would be so great. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn_jhfQXpxw&feature=relatedAnd this is my favorite Toaca/Tallanton/Semandrone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oSN4LEJlYs