We rang for Cop26.

I know that the concept is tricky for some. The fact that thousands of people have flown into Glasgow to discuss ways of minimising carbon outputs (how about minimising international travel – you can't all be needed) ,  the fact that organisations with rather dubious green credentials are sponsoring the conference, the fact that certain key players will be absent…. all are problematic.  But the world is not perfect and usually we have to work with what we have got.

My argument is that if the CofE and our bishop have requested that their bells be rung, then that is good enough for me.  Someone did query if I always did what the bishop said, but I am no actress so in this context the answer is "yes". We do not own the bells in our towers.  We may be their custodians and we do our best to maintain them in good condition. We ensure that there are people ready and willing to ring them but at the end of the day they belong to the church.  It is rare that we are asked to ring for a particular occasion, but when we are I feel it behoves us to oblige, unless there are very strong matters of principle to stand in our way.  Obviously, I would not ring for something that I vehemently oppose, whatever the bishop said, but if s/he then turned round and said "never darken my tower again, you ungrateful wretch" then that would be the price that I would pay for my principles. To stand up for one's beliefs can sometimes come at a cost, but I don't think that is true when it comes to ringing for Cop26.

I believe that climate change is real, is serious and needs addressing urgently. Whether Cop26 is the best way of addressing it is debatable, but ringing our bells is a clear signal that something is awry and the publicity around it (the event made the Radio 4 9am news bulletin and the mainstream evening news as well as local media broadcasts) is a good thing.  Bells mean business.  Bells are part of our national identity.  Bells ring for reasons other than the indulgence of ringers.

We shared a prayer for Cop26 at 6pm and rang for 30 minutes as requested. We rang rather well and felt pleased with ourselves.  We even recorded it as asked for by our association. There was a sense of solidarity in the knowledge that many of the Norfolk towers, from modest rural rings to the mighty St Peter Mancroft  in Norwich joined in with one voice and across the UK our peals were heard.

We even managed to ring down in peal, which is not something that happens every day in our tower, and we went home quite chuffed.