Among the regular attenders to St Matthews Church, Rowde, are a group of residents who live at a centre run by ‘Agincare’, who provide supported living services to vulnerable adults.
One of their members, Matthew, has a sister who rings bells at her home church and has been keen to ring bells at our church. A simple risk assessment and more detailed discussions with the carers quickly rule out the possibility of Matthew being able to ring a bell. But what we did was to assess if Matthew could access the ringing platform unaided and listen to simple instructions and comply with them.
Having ascertained that Matthew met that criteria we allow him to hold the sally whilst the tower captain hold the tail end and coils and together, they chime the Treble for two minutes before the service is due to start.
All it means for the tower team is that we ring down marginally earlier than we used to, in order that Matthew may chime for the last two minutes. It is worth it just to see the smile on Matthew’s face every Sunday.
Michael Cornwell – Rowde Tower Captain
