STRETCHING EXERCISE
Week-by-week this magazine gives us an enormous amount of information of who has achieved what, and where. There are also details of new methods to be rung to challenge conductor and band alike into producing fresh ways of making a noise in the neighbourhood, hopefully without too many trips in the first attempt. Gone are the days when a peal of Minor was a simple collection of straightforward Plain, Treble Bob, and Surprise methods as published in the Standard Methods book. Minds as well as arms are being stretched, with variations galore.
What of your faith? Is it just a simple collection of stories gleaned many years ago at Sunday School, or is it regularly exercised and stretched to face the many contemporary challenges of being a Christian in 2023?
As part of a band of fellow pilgrims we are encouraged to work out with all such complexity through the exercise of the Christian Faith, with our worship focussed so much on a Sunday morning. How necessary then for us together to lift our voices in musical praise, as much as our arms do rhythmically at the end of a rope beforehand. And, at the end of the service, with a cup of tea or coffee to consume, the opportunity to talk about our activity, always with the possibility of discovering new faces to join us in our ancient art. That is such a vital matter for so many bands of ringers.
MICHAEL STEPHENS