Change Ringing At Church of the Heavenly Rest - Abilene

The All Saints' Tower at the Church of the Heavenly rest has 6 bells that are hung for change ringing. This means that the bells are hung on a wheel that allows them to be swung 360 degrees from an upside down position and then balanced back to an upside down position. This swing involves two strokes on the rope. A hand stroke and a tail stroke. On the hand stroke, the person ringing holds a fuzzy wool section of the rope called the "Sally". On the tail stroke, the ringer pulls the very end of the rope. The two strokes have a varying length of rope due to the amount of rope that winds around the wheel on one and unwinds on the other. The bells are:

1st Treble Mary - 202 lbs and 20 1/2" in diameter

2nd Little Ruth - 271 lbs and 22 3/4" in diameter

3rd David III - 356 lbs and 25" in diameter

4th Alexander IV - 385 lbs and 25 3/4" in diameter

5th Bob Smith - 528 lbs and 29" in diameter

6th Tenor Conrad 704 lbs and 32 1/2 in diameter

The bells were hung in 1982 and the first time they were rung was on Christmas Eve of that year. They were "Push Rung" by Martha Boettger, Conrad Bratton, James Bratton, Nancy Glover, Eric Otto and Karin Otto. The bells were updated in the 1990's by Bob Smith of Melbourne, England. The first quarter peal was rung on these updated bells on August 23rd of 1997. The peal consisted of 1,260 PB Doubles and was rung by Mary Glover, Ruth Smith (on "their" bells), Sue Mason and Garry Mason of Leicester, England and Bob Smith and Conrad Bratton (on "their" bells).

In ringing, anything from 5 bells (realistically) to 12 bells can be rung. The standard terms are:


3 Bells: Singles (6 total changes)
4 Bells: Minimus (24 total changes)
5 Bells: Doubles (120 total changes)
6 Bells: Minor (720 total changes)
7 Bells: Triples (5,040 total changes)
8 Bells: Major (40,320 total changes)
9 Bells: Caters (362,880 total changes)
10 Bells: Royal (3,628,800 total changes)
11 Bells: Cinques (39,916,800 total changes)
12 Bells: Maximus (479,001,600 total changes)

The All Saints' Tower Bells can be rung in Singles, Minimus, Doubles and Minor forms of the methods. In the photos below, the quarter peals are done with 6 bells but in Doubles. This means that the 6th bell is always rung in last place while the other 5 "change".