 David Shanklin directs the Celebration Ringers, the middle-school hand-bell choir at Forrest Burdette Memorial United Methodist Church in Hurricane. The first hand-bell performance took place at the church in 1979. Since then, the program has become an important part of its ministry. |
By Katlin Stinespring
Hurricane High School
CHARLESTON
GAZETTE-MAIL
Flipside
December 22, 2007
The “carol of the bells” is no longer just for Christmas. Though hand-bell playing is a tradition that is centuries old, it is a growing part of many modern churches’ worship programs. One local church has helped to advance hand-bell playing in the area as a whole with its own thriving program.
The sound of bells ringing throughout Hurricane’s Forrest Burdette Memorial United Methodist Church is nothing new to its congregation. In the late 1970s, an anonymous church member donated funds to purchase three octaves of hand-bells. When longtime members David and Malinda Shanklin heard about this, they knew that the sound would be a beautiful addition to their wedding.
However, the idea almost did not work. The ordered hand-bells did not arrive in time for the wedding, but the Shanklins’ were able to find bells to borrow. Their 1979 wedding marked the first-ever hand-bell performance at Forrest Burdette.
Organized hand-bell choirs were not formed for at least another 10 years. Throughout this period of time, Gerry Simmons, the church’s choir director at the time, would organize groups of adults and youth to perform for special occasions.
Today, though, Forrest Burdette boasts hand-bell choirs ranging from older elementary students through adults. To prepare children for hand bells, there is even a chimes choir for children in the first and second grades, which allows the younger musicians to learn hand-bell technique only with smaller instruments to handle.
“At one point, we had 85 people involved in all of the choirs,” said Malinda Shanklin, an assistant director for the middle school and high school choirs as well as a member of the adult choir.
These choirs meet each Sunday evening (Wednesday for the chimes choir) to rehearse for performances, which typically take place during the 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. Sunday services. The adult choir — which includes one middle school and two high school students — also travels on occasion to perform at other area churches and local festivals.
“There were a couple of churches (First Baptist Church in Hurricane and a Methodist church in Pea Ridge) that enjoyed our performances so much that they bought their own hand bells and formed their own choirs,” said Forrest Burdette member Debby Cunningham, who has been playing hand bells for about 13 years and is also an assistant director for the middle and high school choirs.
Every few years, Forrest Burdette brings in people from the hand-bell community to hold workshops for both the adult and student choirs. This allows the ringers to develop new techniques and receive different perspectives of hand-bell ringing.
Hand-bell ringing has become a very worthwhile activity at the church because it not only touches the hearts of the performers and listeners within the church community, but it is also an outreach ministry. Playing hand bells is many people’s first contact with Forrest Burdette or attending church in general.
Many current ringers at Forrest Burdette have joined the church because they were first introduced to it through the hand-bell ministry. Also, adults, teenagers and children invite people from other churches to come to hand-bell rehearsals.
“It’s something that you can get a lot of people involved in,” said David Shanklin, the middle school and high school hand-bell choir director and adult hand-bell choir member.
“It’s very inclusive,” Malinda agreed. “You don’t have to know how to read music well to be able to play. It gives everyone another artistic outlet within the church.”
Malinda says that the hand-bell program is also “another opportunity for an intergenerational outreach ministry.” For example, a grandmother and her granddaughter have been playing in the hand-bell choirs at Forrest Burdette for more than 10 years and have also taught various choirs together.
Many children also start out in the chimes choir and stick with the program all through high school. Currently, there are numerous high school seniors who began playing between ages 5 and 8 and are still playing today.
“I love music, and I love the group of people we play with. I’ve stuck with it for six years because playing in a Christian atmosphere is heartwarming and glorifying God through music is gratifying,” said Hurricane High School senior Elizabeth Jarvis.