Ringing Forums

there are many places where ringers are able to provide service ringing for several churches because the service times are different at each church. Assuming that special services are held at the same times as normal services that shouldn't be a problem.
Where it would be less easy is where services are at different churches on different weeks, presumably in joint beneficent where the priest is shared between them. Maybe they would have Harvest on different weeks too, but I don't know how they (priest or ringers) cope at Easter or Christmas.
I think practice augmentation and supporting service ringing are different. At a prazctice you need a greater number to stretch and develop people whereas service ringing just requires enough to ring something, which can, and probably should, be less stretching.

John - unfortunately, we have examples where special services are at different times from the regular service, hence the clashes created. Also, the Harvest services are in successive weeks for the reason you mention - one priest covering 11 churches (in one instance). In particular, the churches want the bells for the special services whereas there is no ringing normally - just one 8am service a month for example.

We will see what will be requested for Remembrance and Christmas.

The Coronation was one good example of the struggle to cover multiple churches in the same day (or weekend) and Christmas is the classic example where everyone wants ringing for a carol service on a Sunday afternoon about two weeks before Christmas.
In some cases we have rung before one service then after a service elsewhere but depending on the number of ringers available it’s not possible to ring every time at every tower and there are times when we have used the opportunity to encourage the vicar to plan to talk about ringing with the congregation in the hope of finding more ringers before the next year, explaining the time it takes to learn, etc.
I think there is no easy answer, although I wish local vicars would talk to each other and try to avoid the clashes whenever possible, I guess while only ringers are impacted they won’t see a reason to off-set service times for a ringing equivalent of a pub crawl!

I think practice augmentation and supporting service ringing are different. At a practice you need a greater number to stretch and develop people whereas service ringing just requires enough to ring something, which can, and probably should, be less stretching. — John Harrison

In our local Hub, by working together since Covid we have been able to gradually increase the number of ringers. One previously silent tower now has a band of ten ringers. We have also been able to grow the number of ringers in a neighbouring benefice by forming a benefice band. One tower had an active team and the other only had a couple of ringers left, and the bells were hardly ever rung The new ringers in this benefice now benefit through having the choice of two practices a week. If ever there was a need to, there are now more than enough ringers in this benefice to ring at both towers simultaneously.

The ringers in both benefices also help each other out if needed to ring ring for weddings, and also attempt quarters and deliver training sessions, which they would not be able to do on their own. We've also recently started helping a third benefice to regenerate their band, They have two towers and nine ringers, of whom a third are over age 70 and another third over 80. The remainder are all over 50.

Teaming up in 'hubs' and 'clusters' like this would seem to be the way forward to safeguard the future of ringing in many other towers.

I can the answer I expected - hubs are a good way to maintain ringing both for routine services and practices since bringing ringers together can achieve critical mass. However, there it is still the imperative that we recruit more ringers, not least to enable ringing for major events like Harvest, Christmas, Remembrance and national occasions.

The advantage of hubs for recruiting is that they should appear to be active and lively groups able of fostering ringing. Having said that, hubs still need capable teachers and facilities, both for the initial stages and advancement. Recruits to such hubs also need to be willing to travel to other towers when required.

So forming hubs / clusters (whatever they may be called) in name only is not sufficient - training aids, teachers and recruitment have to be an integral part of forming a hub.