For Whom The Bells Toll: ‘A Simple But Disturbing Ministry’

By Shannon Hicks

Most people are familiar with the joyous sound of church bells being tolled to announce the conclusion of a wedding ceremony. Many churches in town continue to ring their bells to announce the start of Sunday worship services. Even the occasional funeral warrants the tolling of church bells.

But why are the church bells at Trinity Church in Newtown sometimes heard tolling during the evening drive home, when the church does not seem to have a service going on and the parking lot looks empty?

If you ask, “For Whom The Bells Toll?,” you have your answer.

A play on Hemingway’s novel of a similar name, For Whom The Bells Toll is a campaign that raises the awareness of state-sanctioned execution. It is a national initiative to have religious organizations across the country toll their bells whenever there is an execution. The campaign is organized by CURE, or Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, a nationwide grassroots organization dedicated to reducing crime through reform of the criminal justice system.

The first US tolling of bells occurred in late 1999. Jaime Cardinal Sin of the Philippines asked that Catholic churches in his country toll the bells to mourn the execution of a citizen in that country. Word of this practice found its way to Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Va., who then wrote to the churches in his diocese.

The tolling began at 9 pm on November 9, 1999, and will continue “on the evening of every execution until we bring an end to this inhumane practice,” Bishop Sullivan wrote in part. CURE helped with the organization of For Whom The Bells Toll, and the task of coordinating the exchange of information was taken on by the Sisters of Mercy (of Dead Man Walking fame).

Trinity member Gordon Strother felt so strongly about capital punishment that when he learned about the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty two years ago, he took a few more steps beyond reading the network’s literature and has brought a national campaign into the church at 36 Main Street. Trinity’s bells are now in sync with church and synagogue bells in all 50 states through the For Whom The Bells Toll campaign.

Mr Strother was Trinity’s delegate during the annual convention of the Episcopal diocese in Connecticut. It was during a coffee break of the 2005 convention, in October, that Mr Strother visited a display area and found an appeal from the Connecticut network. At the time the network was enlisting churches into its 1,000 Bells Campaign. That campaign was created to mark the somber anniversary of when the 1,000th person was put to death in the United States since the resumption of capital punishment in this country in 1976. The 1,000 Bells campaign came to an end on December 2, 2005, when Kenneth Lee Boyd was put to death by lethal injection in North Carolina.

The ongoing For Whom The Bells Toll campaign was brought to Mr Strother’s attention after he learned of the 1,000 Bells campaign.

Trinity’s priests have not pulled the rope but, says Mr Strother, “they all behind it, telling me to go for it.”

It was easy, in fact, for Mr Strother to get the approval from his church for this form of expression in a controversial national debate. “Pastor Kathie [Adams-Shepherd, Trinity’s Rector] immediately said Yes. She and Carol [Westphal, the church’s associate rector] have talked with me several times, and they are both behind me.”

Trinity’s church bells were first run as part of For Whom The Bells Toll in January 2006. Fifty-three executions were carried out across the country by the end of the year.

Mr Strother has already been in the bell tower seven times this year. On January 9, Corey Hamilton was put to death by lethal injection in Oklahoma. Three more executions took place in Texas that month, all by lethal injection, and two more had been done in Texas by February 22.

His most recent trip to the bell tower was this week. On February 27, Donald Miller received lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, in the state’s death house, 25 years after being convicted for the robbery and shooting death of two men on February 2, 1982. Miller’s was the sixth execution in Texas this year, by far the nation’s most active capital punishment state. Five more men are set to die next month, including two next week.

In the hours before driving from his home to Trinity, Mr Strother often finds himself thinking about the man who is to be put to death that evening.

“I know the guy’s name, and the state, and usually I think about it from time to time during the day,” he said.

When it is time to join the churches across the country observing the two minutes of tolling, Mr Strother has a routine that has fallen into place for him. He turns on the light switches, and listening for the familiar creaks on the steps and within the bell tower as he makes his way to the bell rope. Tolling the bell slowly but deliberately for two minutes is Mr Strother’s way of performing what he calls “a simple but disturbing ministry.”

He has to pace himself so that the bell tolls, but without sounding hurried.

“You want it to sound deliberate, not hurried,” he said. “It’s a mournful occasion, but you also have to concentrate on the mechanics of getting everything right.” During the two minutes the bells will toll about 30 times, said Mr Strother.

Once his job in the bell tower is done, Mr Strother reverses his steps, turns off lights, and heads into the church’s sanctuary to pray.

“I pray for the person, his executioners, and for forgiveness,” he said, “because even though it is usually in another state, as a citizen we are responsible for what our leaders do in our name. I am asking for forgiveness as well as some sort of insight for those who are responsible for this.”

As of February 27, Amnesty International had 20 planned executions listed on its website, including the one on February 27.

Stays are occasionally granted, of course, so Mr Strother makes a point of checking his online listing before leaving the house on a night when he will be tolling Trinity’s bells. For Whom The Bells Toll has links to Amnesty International and a Yahoo! group from its website, which is where Mr Strother finds the dates and names for scheduled executions.

“I sometimes double check just before going out and find that a name has disappeared. Apparently, I’m assuming he got a stay at that point,” said Mr Strother. “It’s usually a he, not a she.”

Fellow Trinity member Tim Vogelman has occasionally rung the bells on the 6 o’clock hour, and Mr Strother says he would welcome other church members who want to join the campaign. Barring the banishment of capital punishment across the country, what Mr Strother would really like to see now is the expansion of the campaign to more houses of worship.

“I wish other churches would get involved,” he said. “It would be great if all the churches in Newtown started ringing the bells.”