KENT, Conn.—St. Andrew’s bell has been silenced just 10 months before it was to ring out in celebration of the bicentennial of the historic church. Deterioration of the white oak beams that support the bell have rendered it dangerous to anyone pulling its rope.
The problem was discovered when church treasurer Stephan Morocco, who rings the bell regularly, found it more and more arduous.
“I said to myself that one of two things is happening—either I’m more decrepit or something is going on with the bell,” he recounted.
Eschewing the first idea, he consulted church bell specialists from Vermont. “They looked at it and said to cut the rope immediately. The big white oak beam that supports it is about to bust open and drop a 900-pound bell on someone. Imagine, not that long ago, one of our parishioners rang the bell 100 times for Henry Kissinger’s birthday!” he said.
The church is mounting a campaign to stabilize the bell so it can be rung again during the bicentennial of the consecration of St. Andrew’s on Aug. 27-29. 2027.
The vestry has already received two bids from specialists in historic preservation. “I’m on a mission,” said Morocco. “First, we will talk to the church members and then to the town. We will launch a full-fledged capital campaign in January.”
Marel Rogers, senior warden, said she hopes townspeople will also join in the restoration effort as the church is such an integral part of the community. She recalled that during Covid the bell was rung to honor first responders and then to commemorate special events such as birthdays, anniversaries and deaths—anything someone in town wanted commemorated. Videos were made and sent to the families that requested the bell to sound out the announcement.
Morocco said the bell is inextricably connected to the memory of the Rev. Roger White, who, during his tenure at St. Andrew’s, established the practice of ringing the bell 18 times morning and evening. Eighteen commemorates the number of young men who formed the first class at Kent School, established by Fr. Frederick Sills in 1906.
St. Andrews started as a parish of the Church of England in 1760, some 20 years after Kent’s founding. The first building was erected between 1768 and 1772 through the efforts of local church leaders. Its site is unknown, although it is thought to have stood just south of the current parish house.
In 1819, the Rev. George B Andrews, whose service is commemorated in a stained-glass window in the sanctuary, arrived to serve Episcopal congregations in Kent, Sharon, New Preston and later Salisbury.
In 1821, he began planning a new church building for Kent. Unlike the brick churches then being built in neighboring communities, the new Kent church was constructed of stone. Completed in 1827, the building was consecrated on Aug. 29, 1827, by Thomas C. Brownell, Bishop of Connecticut.
Rogers said that Andrews was married to Sarah Hitchcock. “Urban legend is that she came from money and helped build this church and the other three,” said Rogers. The earliest Episcopal church in Kent was known as St. John’s, but the name was changed to St. Andrew’s in honor of the industrious priest.
The history of the bell, still suspended from its imperiled framework, is as distinctive as that of the church. Installed in 1831, it was cast in Hartford by a firm started by Isaac Doolittle, one of the earliest bell manufacturers in the United States. Prior to that bells were imported from Europe. The St. Andrew’s bell is believed to be among the earliest surviving church bells cast in the United States.
“It was the very first to ring in the town of Kent,” said Morocco, who said it cannot be rung again until it is reconsecrated by the Bishop of Connecticut. Church members hope that can happen on the centennial weekend when the bishop is expected to be present.
The centennial weekend will include a concert in the nave, a townwide picnic under a tent and a festal Eucharist and consecration of the steeple bell, with the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey Mello, presiding. All events will be free and open to the public.
The church members will have to hustle to get the bell’s heavy support system reconstructed in time. It fits snuggly in the steeple with little room to maneuver. It is hoped that the bell can be winched up above the work area, out of the way of workmen. A crane will be used to lift it.
“Imagine,” said Morocco, “in 1831 it would been just men and teams of oxen pulling up a bell that weighs about 900 punds.”
“If it cannot be pulled up, we would have to remove a panel on one side of the steeple,” said Rogers, “which would require a crane for more than a day.”
