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Our Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, the oldest continuously-operating Orthodox Christian community in the Lower 48, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2018. In time for the celebration, the huge and historic Cathedral bells were reinstalled with new brackets and a new layout in the bell tower. The purpose of this was to accommodate the traditional ringing system that allows one person to ring all the bells in a cohesive and musical way. Three new small bells were added to replace some of the historic bells that had broken.
Constantine Stade, founder of The Church Bell Company, returned in 2021 to make some updates and improvements to the ringing system, as well as to incorporate additional old and new bells into the ringing system. Now all 9 bells are rung by a single bellringer, which unlocks rhythms and combinations of sounds that are impossible to coordinate between multiple ringers.
“It’s been a huge blessing for me to have worked in this belfry over the past few years, and I wanted to find a way to bring the unique sound, character, and history of these bells to the attention of more people than only those who are able to get up into the belfry.”
The Diocese of the West is the geographical district of the Orthodox Church in America consisting of the Western United States. The diocese has active parishes in Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. San Francisco is home to the diocese’s cathedral, Holy Trinity, as well as the Chancery offices. The diocese is led by His Grace Vasily, Bishop of San Francisco and the West.
