St Paul's, Manuka (Canberra)
Links
Visit the St Paul's Bellringer's website for images and sounds!
And here's a link to Manuka's Risk Management and Evacuation plans.
Peals at Manuka and Goulburn, 15-16 June 2024
The Anglican Diocese of Canberra-Goulburn has four rings of bells: Canberra, Goulburn, Yass and Wagga Wagga. On the weekend of June 15 and 16 we had two worthwhile occasions which warranted peal attempts.
The bells of St Paul's Manuka were installed in 2003. Tower Captain Julie Doyle suggested a peal attempt to celebrate the "21st birthday" of the bells. A peal of Double Norwich Court Bob Major was duly rung on Saturday 15th June, with the band including three local ringers. There have now been a total of seven peals on the bells, every method different. After Saturday's peal, the team retired to Julie and Jim Doyle's home for a celebration lunch.
The band, clockwise from front right. (image: Christopher D O'Mahony)
Over at Goulburn, it was recently announced that Rev Gavin Krebs is to become our new Dean, the eighth Dean of St Saviour's Cathedral. He will take up his role in July 2024, but we took the opportunity of an existing booking to ring a creditable peal of Yorkshire Surprise Royal on Sunday 16th June, with an appropriate footnote welcoming the new Dean. The team comprised ringers from Sydney, Goulburn, Albury and Adelaide. Refreshments afterwards were at Christopher's home, where the band entertained his kelpie, Winston.
The band, clockwise from front right (image: James Perrins)
Both peals benefitted from some excellent striking, and many positive comments have been received from the respective tower neighbourhoods.
Christopher O'Mahony
Ringing Weekend, March 2020
On 7-8 March Manuka Ringers were joined by Peter Harrison, Christopher O'Mahony, and Andrew Mills from Taylors who has been working on the Carillon Refurbishment for several months.
It was a great opportunity for people to enhance their skills particularly on eight bells. Success was achieved with Grandsire and Stedman Triples as well as Cambridge and Bristol (with Andrew doublehanding as well as putting people right!)
The lunch break provided an opportunity for people to try out handbells including 11 year old Philip and 8 year old Rhiannon (who took the above photo).
A touch of 84 Grandsire Triples was rung in memory of George Pipe who did so much for ANZAB and Australian ringing - the band included the current and two past Presidents of ANZAB as well as ringers from ACT, NSW, VIC, SA and WA.
On Sunday Peter Harrison conducted a QP of Grandsire Triples enabling two members of the band to score their first quarter peal on 8.
A very encouraging and fun weekend.
Julie Doyle
Canberra Summer Ringing, January 2020
Saturday, 2 January - 44 degrees - Wedding ringing after checking all safety and evacuation procedures. 5 litres of water for the band AND very short touches.
Sunday, 3 January - choking yellow smoke - the Rector said we looked like terrorists.
But of course this is nothing compared with what so many people have endured in the past few months.
Julie Doyle
Who Let the Dogs In at Manuka?
We arrived at the tower to ring for the 7:00am Annual Parliamentary Service this morning, 12 February 2019, to find that the Bomb and Dog Squad had picked the door lock just beforehand but hadn't managed to breach the flimsy screen door to the tower. I'm sure the dogs were very disappointed not to able to grab the tower.
Julie Doyle
Ragg and Muffin would have protected things if they were still around! - Webmaster
Manuka Ringing Weekend, March 2015
Julie Doyle organised a successful 'surprise major weekend' at Manuka on 20-22 March 2015. Peter Harrison was on hand not only to ring, but also to take these images of the occasion.
Participants relaxing during a break in proceedings
Concentration was a hallmark of the weekend
Are we in Europe? No, it's nearby St Christopher's Cathedral, Manuka
The visitors also had a chance to grab Bowral on the Friday afternoon and caused lots of interest among the locals during the school 'rush hour'.
Lydia's 1st Quarter
Lydia Waddell of Canberra rang her her first quarter peal on Sunday, 13 April 2014. Here is the band outside St Paul's, Manuka, on a beautiful Canberra day, immediately following the quarter.
Julie Doyle, Ted Reid, Susan Tonkin, Jim Waddell, Simon McMillan, Lydia Waddell
Manuka Celebrates 10 years
On the weekend of 3-4 August 2013, the ringers and parishioners of St Paul's, Manuka, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the dedication and first ringing of their bells. Although the precise anniversary occured on 13 June 2013, the commemorative service and its associated ringing was delayed to maximize the attendance of local and visiting ringers.
General ringing on the Saturday was followed dinner at "Caphs", and then service ringing on Sunday, with ringers from Manuka, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Bendigo, Armidale and the United Kingdom in attendance. The communion service featured handbell ringing by Tom Perrins, Chris O'Mahony and Andrew Davies ...
... and was followed by morning tea "provided by the ringers", with the cutting and consumption of a delicious celebratory cake.
The weekend concluded with a peal of 5184 Manuka Surprise Major.
Congratulations to Julie Doyle and the Manuka ringers on their 10th anniversary, and especially Kay Pendlebury, who provided the images shown here. More of them can be found at this link.
notes
This page supplements the ANZAB Tower Directory, and records further information about the tower, its bells and ringers.
Some of this has been provided by local ringers, but most is historical and has been gathered by the ANZAB Webmaster since 2002.
Tower officers are encouraged to submit material for inclusion on this page, or suggest changes to its content.
Contact the