There’s a song in the air that’s been missing for some 20 years in the Belvoir neighborhood behind Grace Episcopal Church.
A carillon, which chimes the hours and seasonal hymns from the church’s Moorish tower, has been restored to working order. A ceremony to mark its restoration will be held at the church following the 10:45 a.m. worship service on Sunday.
“Neighbors have come up and thanked us,” said Mark Siedlecki, the congregation’s junior warden who helped coordinate restoration efforts with church member Adam Bryan.
The carillon is also giving life to a part of Christus Gardens, a longtime Gatlinburg, Tenn., Christian tourist attraction that closed in Jan. 2008.
The attraction’s Flemish bells mechanism, which had apparently been in place since the early 1960s, is now in Grace Episcopal Church, Mr. Siedlecki said.
“It was kind of like a heart transplant,” he said. “It’s symbolic of us coming back to life as a church.”
The original contract for installation of the 75-bell carillon, which cost $11,900 (more than $100,000 today), was signed on Aug. 2, 1967, according to Mr. Siedlecki.
It was given to the church by Katharine S. Munro in memory of her husband, John, according to a Nov. 18, 1967, Chattanooga Times article.
It chimed until its pre-amplifier was hit by lightning somewhere between 1989 and 1992, he said.
Mr. Bryan said he was reading a plaque in the narthex one day and noticed a gift to the church of a carillon.
“At that point,” he said, “I had no idea we even had one and … stunned that nobody really knew anything about it other than it hadn’t worked for years.”
As a lover of music and with an appreciation for carillons, Mr. Bryan decided to find out the disposition of the instrument the church allegedly possessed.
Eventually, he learned two sets of chimes had been removed at some point, but his search for them was in vain.
“I guess nobody thought it could be fixed,” said Mr. Siedlecki, a member of the church for nine years. Evidently, he said, “the chimes were cut out and thrown away.”
“It’s sad that it didn’t play for so long,” he said. “I guess it was not quite as fashionable (as it once was).”
Officials at Schulmerich, the Sellersville, Pa., manufacturer of the carillon, had little faith it could be repaired, according to Mr. Bryan, so he went to the Internet and found Organtek, a Knoxville company specializing in such repairs.
James Baysinger, founder and owner of the firm, told him the unit was in amazingly good condition and could be restored. Ultimately, Mr. Baysinger replaced 25 bells weighing 75 to 100 pounds per cabinet and their electronics with the Christus Gardens bells – made by the same manufacturer – in each of two cabinets. He also made electrical and mechanical repairs to the carillon itself.
The Christus Gardens bells, the Organtek owner said, were given to him when the attraction closed because he had serviced the carillon there over the years.
“I had it in my shop (after the attraction closed),” he said. “It’s fairly rare.”
Mr. Baysinger said he has loved bells since he was young and gets a measure of satisfaction by putting old mechanical bell systems back into working order.
“That makes me very happy,” he said.
The repairs, in general, were a “decent investment,” with several members providing “a substantial portion” of the cost, Mr. Siedlecki said.
Today, the carillon may be played electromechnically by a push of the button – its works look like those of a player piano – or may be played through the organ, he said.
Fully functional for the first time on Mother’s Day, it sounds the Westminster chime on the hours, plays hymns hourly based on the church calendar and chimes on Sunday mornings at 10:30 as a call to worship.
“I guess you could say I had faith this gift to the church, given over 40 years ago and silent for over 20,” said Mr. Bryan, “had a chance to continue to give to the community. Now, thanks to the talents of James, it’s almost as if Grace has received this gift once again.”