Leechburg church bells set to ring on Easter Sunday
The building was struck by lightning in October 2022
By Yazmin Rodriguez
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LEECHBURG, Pennsylvania (WTAE) — Just a week out from Easter, the church bells at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Leechburg will ring once again after falling silent in 2022. The pastor said they’ve already tested everything ahead of Easter, and it’s working perfectly.
“There’s no better way for us to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus than to celebrate the resurrection of the Carillon,” said the Rev. James Arter.
Arter says the church building was built in 1903, and 10 bells were originally installed and dedicated to the church members who died during World War I. When the bells were first installed, they had to be operated by hand and remained that way until they were electrified in the 1940s. From there, the bells continued to expand.
“When the bells were electrified so that they could operate mechanically and in the late 1980s, there was a major campaign for the church, and then we installed an additional 18 bells, bringing the total of bells to 48, which makes this carillon one of the largest in all of western Pennsylvania,” Arter said.
The building was struck by lightning in October 2022, and the system no longer powered up and the bells fell silent. It was the first time in 112 years the bells didn’t ring twice daily, once at noon and then at 6 p.m. A community was now missing one of its most familiar sounds and memories.
Arter says people from the community and around the country opened their hearts and wallets to help the church raise the funds to power back up the bells. Even with the funds raised last August, the equipment then needed to be specially made, which took time.
“It wasn’t until Monday and Tuesday of this past week that we were finally able to get the workmen here to install the new system and get everything going,” Arter said.
Now, the church is thankful for its community and ready to restart a decades-long tradition everyone has learned to cherish and even plan their day around.
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