Kelowna church asks for noise bylaw exemption for bell-ringing marathon

KELOWNA – If Kelowna city council gives the okay, the bell at The Cathedral Church of St. Michael and All Angels will toll over 1,000 times, once for each of the missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.

The church is asking the city to temporarily set aside its noise bylaw beginning 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 21, to ring the church bell 1,112 times.

In a letter to council, the priest-in-charge David Crawley said they had originally been asked to toll the bell each Wednesday for four weeks but decided it would have been too much for the neighbours.

“Our cathedral is bordered on three sides by apartment buildings and we were concerned such an action might inconvenience and distress our neighbours so we decided instead we like to toll our bell the appropriate number of times," he said in the letter.

Crawley added if council approves the request, the church will hand deliver notifications to all the surrounding neighbours explaining the purpose of the bell ringing.

There is no indication in the letter about how long the bell-ringing ritual will take.

Similar bell-tolling has already taken place at 30 other Anglican churches in cities across Canada.

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