St. Paul’s Handbell Choir is directed by Marcia Wilke and began in 1980 with the purchase of two octaves of handbells, thanks to a generous contribution from a couple in the church. We soon expanded to three octaves within the year as there was not much music published for two octaves at that time. The fourth octave was purchased about twenty years ago.
St. Paul’s has had both a mixed youth/adult choir and youth bell choir. Chimes were purchased about 1990 and a better set of chimes about 2000, both from memorials given by St. Paul’s parishioners. This enabled the youth to learn how to ring and to eventually join the adult Handbell Choir. As the chime choir rehearsal time has been taken over by the Sunday School hour, there is no current children’s chime choir. However, youth over the age of 11 are welcome to train with Marcia Wilke and join the main Handbell Choir.
The bell choir rehearses from 12:15-1:15 p.m. each Sunday except on days when they perform the prelude for the 10:30 a.m. service. There are a few additional rehearsals, agreed upon by the ringers. Performances are scheduled for Christmas time at the Festival of Lessons and Carols and the Christmas Eve service and, at the present time, in Cordiner Hall foyer before the community Feast of Carols in early December. Bells also play on Easter Sunday and Pentecost. We also plan on having the choir play for assisted living residents in our community.
Ringers need to be able to read music, count and commit to rehearsals nearly every Sunday from mid-September to mid-May if possible. Ringers can also join on a seasonal basis in the months before either Christmas or Easter. We have had Whitman and Walla Walla University students as members in the past and are always happy to have more join us while school is in session.
The Matthew Fuhr Handbell Fund was established in 1980 in memory of a parishioner who died at the age of nine. His sister was a member of the Junior Choir and he would have joined the following fall. This fund has been sustained by memorials and recycling cardboard, newspaper and aluminum cans. The latter has been generously donated by parishioners and voluntarily taken to the Recycling Center by Stan Heller for a number of years. We owe him a debt of gratitude as we have been able to purchase such items as music, bell cases with wheels and stand lights.
