Here we are, nearly at the end of the year, witnessing the wonderful colours of our natural world, as the leaves on the trees transform from green to yellow, orange or fiery reds before falling, ready for new growth in Spring. What a colourful time of year it is?
The month sees the start of Guild Quarter Peal Week running from November 2nd to 10th and it is still not too late to organise a QP if you haven’t already done so. All the details can be found on the Guild website at sdgr.org.uk. I look forward to seeing the QPs rung; let’s try and beat last year’s total. A reminder that when submitting to Bellboard please link them to the SDGR Quarter Peal Week event and do not send to the Ringing World direct so that all quarters can be collated and sent en bloc.
Two notable dates in the month provide good opportunities for ringing – November 1st All Saint’s Day and November 10th Remembrance Sunday, the latter falling within QP week. This gives us a rare chance to ring and experience the beautiful sound of half muffled bells. Whether your church is dedicated to All Saints or not, why not ring All Saints Doubles? If you don’t already ring the method, you could learn it and follow up with a QP to consolidate the learning!
A priority of the Guild must be the Recruitment and Retention of new members to ensure the ancient art of bellringing continues to exist and flourish. A recent issue of the weekly publication, The Ringing World, devoted a number of its pages to resources and articles on Handbell Ringing suggesting that if your Tower or band has a set of handbells lying around somewhere now is the time to start dusting them off and practising for public performances. Christmas is a time to come out of hibernation and I quote from the article – ‘nothing evokes the pleasure and nostalgia of Christmas more than carols rung on handbells. This might be in a church, perhaps as part of a candlelit Service, in a pub or delighting shoppers at a supermarket or garden centre.’ As well as a fundraiser this could be a good PR exercise for bells and ringing, it might spark an interest in someone out there listening. Andy, our Communications Officer, has been busy working on a new ‘Learn to Ring’ page within the website. Do have a look at it and point any interested people to the website to give them an idea of what is involved and how to get started.
Towards the end of October the Guild Executive met. We had reports from the various work groups who have been hard at work in the background. One such group, the Way Forward Group (WFG) have been busy over the past few months working on a review of our present rules. As a result of this work a Draft was circulated to members of the Executive and it was agreed the Draft rules be sent to all members for feedback. You will shortly be receiving a communication on this matter as well as being able to see the Draft on the website. These rules are for the benefit of you the members so please do read and send your comments to email hidden; JavaScript is required.
We are now in the season of Branch AGMs. Vicki, Kathryn and myself will hope to visit as many Branches as we can during this time, I look forward to meeting many of you then. Please do continue to send any items of news, with photos, from your tower, branches or any ringing related item to Andy via email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Pat Davidson
Guild President
