Security of handbells and chimes

[Cynthia Erickson]

Hi all,

My church is merging with another church in the next few months. At my church, I've been spoiled. The bells and chimes have, for decades, been located in a locked custom closet, in a locked room dedicated solely for handbell use, so they've been quite secure. The church we're moving to has their handbells in an open activity room, in an open cabinet, basically visible to anyone who walks into that activity room. I am learning that there are outside groups that use the church regularly - girl scouts, a community friendship group, some theater group, etc. I arrived there last night for a rehearsal and found the front door unlocked - violin lessons were underway. I can already feel anxiety settling into my chest.

We are looking for a locking cabinet that my 'old' church might have in some room. We could take that over to the 'new' church and hopefully find space for it.

What are the different ways that you use to store your church's bells securely so that you don't have concerns about theft? 

A worried handbell director,

Cynthia Erickson

[Ashley Hedberg]

My church has used both locking cabinets and locking small rooms/closets in the past. Most of our lockable rooms are individually keyed, so we don’t give community groups keys to wherever the bells are currently being stored. Our current bell storage area is shared with other church belongings, but I don’t believe any renters can access that space.

Our tables and pads are largely unsecured to avoid carrying them up/down stairs every time we rehearse, and they haven’t wandered off yet.

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[kjamesbell]

We didn’t have a good space to store any of our bell equipment when we moved into a smaller building.

And since then we have been sharing our worship space with a soup kitchen that feeds the homeless.

This has grown into 4 days a week that we can’t even get into until late when the cleaners are done for rehearsal.

Bell storage is in a small open room which also is the ‘ nursery’.

(Now, with a locked box that only holds the smallest octave cases.)

The bigger bells sit around and on top of the box, as well as the foam, etc. and covered with sheets to deter loose fingers.

Foam goes into someone’s garage for winter storage when we take a break so that no one is tempted to ‘ borrow’ it for sleeping upon.

- Karen 

Sent from my iPhone

KJ

On Nov 11, 2025, at 11:15 AM, Dr. Bill Wade <drwe...@gmail.com> wrote:



At one church, we keep our bells on a rolling dolly that returns to my locked office when not in use.  At another church, we have a dedicated bell room (unlocked) with the cases around the wall.  

On Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 9:18 AM Cynthia Erickson <cynthia....@minnmicro.com> wrote:

Hi all,

My church is merging with another church in the next few months. At my church, I've been spoiled. The bells and chimes have, for decades, been located in a locked custom closet, in a locked room dedicated solely for handbell use, so they've been quite secure. The church we're moving to has their handbells in an open activity room, in an open cabinet, basically visible to anyone who walks into that activity room. I am learning that there are outside groups that use the church regularly - girl scouts, a community friendship group, some theater group, etc. I arrived there last night for a rehearsal and found the front door unlocked - violin lessons were underway. I can already feel anxiety settling into my chest.

We are looking for a locking cabinet that my 'old' church might have in some room. We could take that over to the 'new' church and hopefully find space for it.

What are the different ways that you use to store your church's bells securely so that you don't have concerns about theft? 

A worried handbell director,

Cynthia Erickson

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Dr. Bill Wade, CAGO

Minister of Music and Organist

St. Paul UCC, St. Louis

3510 Giles Ave

St. Louis, MO 63116

Handbell Director

Kirkwood First Presbyterian Church

100 E Adams

Kirkwood, MO 63122

314-258-2520 (cell)
drwe...@gmail.com

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