28/09/2025
For the Stretham Tower Enhancement Project fundraiser, ringers opened the doors to 25 lovely churches across our Suffolk, Cambridge and Ely ringing districts:
With over 5000 belled churches and towers, ringers like to collect as many records as possible, so to get a chance to fill up to 25 gaps in one day is an infrequent event. Most people got to over 20 churches on the day and a few did manage to reach all 25! Ringers call it tower grabbing, I met someone who had rung over 4000 towers before that morning 20th August ‘25.
I once met a couple from Gloucestershire,
Who tower-grabbed faster than Usain could steer.
They rang every peal,
With gusto and zeal,
And left STEP much richer by end of year.
We had ringers, even one on a bike, from the following counties come and visit:
Worcestershire, East Sussex, Norfolk AND Cambridgeshire!
Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Hampshire, Devon, Northamptonshire, Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, South Yorkshire and Monmouthshire, that’s someplace in Wales?
Which brings me to the huge thank you list. Which goes 1. to Louise Webber of Fordham for single-handedly carrying the energy of the day and all the last-minute worries that ran up to an event which was enjoyed by all.
And #2 to the English churches across 2 diocese whose vital communities support our vital ringing activity in so many ways. Ringers everywhere hope to continue to keep, ringing and the church alive. #3 Finally to the able Stretham congregation, the Burwell ringers and Rowan, for providing great eats throughout the day too. Wardens and key holders and ringers did, above and beyond an excellent job. All enabled us to raise the astonishing amount of £2350 in one day.
Long may the call to worship ring out as a vital beating heart in Stretham and the Fens.
1st Corinthians 12 verse 12 : One Body with Many Members
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.
