On Halloween night 2001, the people of Lunenburg woke to the roar of fire engulfing their beloved St. John’s Anglican Church. For two hundred and fifty years the church and this Nova Scotian fishing and ship building town shared the joys and hardships of surviving on Canada’s east coast.
Lunenburg is a UNESCO world heritage site and a source of great pride to those who live there and the church was considered by many to be the jewel in the crown. When the fire gutted the church and collapsed the bell tower they felt as if they lost an old friend that had always been there. It wasn’t just the parishioners that felt this loss. Until the fire, the salty air of the town was filled with the sound of church bells and not just on Sundays but everyday, and not just hymns but marches and show tunes. Those chimes were part of their daily life.
Peter Allen had played the chimes of St. John’s for 20 years and when he walked around his fallen bells he felt that two hundred and fifty years of history had disappeared. But within days the parishioners were making plans. They had a difficult decision to make, to bulldoze the church, build a new modern structure, rebuild a church in keeping with the local architecture, or to restore the historical building. They choose the most expensive route, to restore the church and keep its historical designation.
Peter Allen volunteered for the job of restoring the bells and chime stand. Restoration requires detective work and Peter is becoming a bit of a sleuth in his basement. Modern churches don’t use chime stands and no one has built one in nearly a hundred years so he has to figure out what to do with clues from the past. Peter also followed the bells to Ohio where the badly damaged ones were re-cast and new and old bells were made pitch perfect.
But this is only part of the restoration story. This show follows the acts of faith and generosity that is raising from the ashes, a restored treasure that will fill the spiritual and community needs of a town that grew dependent on the landmark and its bells.
