Rededication of the Bells 4th September 2024

4th September 2024

In Wednesday, 4th September, 2024 the Service of Rededication of the Bells took place at 6.00 pm in the church with over a hundred people attending. Invited guests included Sir Terry Waite, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch and Simon Adams, Director of John Taylor’s Bell Foundry as well as members of the Suffolk Guild of Ringers. The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Rt. Reverend Martin Seeley made a welcome return visit to officiate assisted by Ian Jackson, Benefice Reader.

The service opened with the hymn ‘Praise my Soul, the King of Heaven’ and it was wonderful to hear the church resound with mass singing. The Westhorpe Singers performed two pieces between the Readings – firstly, ‘Now the Day is Over’, a hymn which resonates with earlier bell ringers at St Margarets followed by a rendition in rounds of the delightful ‘O How Lovely is the Evening’.

At the end of the service, a celebration drink of sparkling wine was served along with canapés whilst in the tower visiting bell ringers treated us to a delightful peal of the bells. It was a fitting end to our project which took just over three years from start to finish.

Our Rededication event was filmed and broadcast on Anglia TV that evening which added to the excitement.