Church Bell Permitting Process

This weekend in Petworth, the neighborhood was serenaded by the church bells from St. Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church.  While I do enjoy the music I am surprised at the sound.  The church has just started ringing its bells with regularity and I wonder:

Is there a church bell permitting process?

Like can a church just start ringing its bells whenever it wants to?  Does it need to talk with local ANC’s first?  Or is there some church/state separation that allows churches to go bell-crazy at their own whim?

And why is it that I noticed the resurgence of St Gabe’s church bells before PoP?

Married, mortgaged, and soon to be a father, Wayan Vota is in the fast lane to mid-life respectability – until the day his brood finds his intimate journal of global traveling and curses him with the ever-eternal reply “I’m gonna be just like you, Dad!”

3 thoughts on “Church Bell Permitting Process

  1. Hurrah! Great news! There are fewer happier sounds than church bells. This must be Father Mateo’s doing, since he is the relatively new pastor. He’s a great guy as well.

    This church is truly one of the great unknown architectural gems in the city.

  2. Tell me about it. if its not clear by the post, i do love the church bells. Its a great addition to the sounds of the hood.

    Do you know why Father Mateo started ringing them? Could you ask. I’d go myself by I tend to spontaneously combust when in churches.

  3. Wayan – I remember Father Mateo 10 years ago when he was at St. Matthew’s Cathedral – a former parish of mine. I haven’t seen him in that time period, so he wouldn’t remember me from Adam, most likely.

    Why not ask yourself, since you live there, and I don’t? Just say you like the bells, and he’ll probably tell you what’s up.