The Holy Rosary Church bell tower has been silent lately, Charlaine e-mailed to say, wondering if that’s temporary:

We live close to Holy Rosary Church & have always enjoyed their bells – which normally chime at specific times every day & also play songs on Sundays & especially on holidays. Christmas & Easter are wonderful! We realized the other day that we haven’t heard the bells since Christmastime – not daily & nothing on Easter. We aren’t members of Holy Rosary so are wondering what’s up – are they being repaired?

That’s indeed what’s been going on, Holy Rosary’s Deyette Swegle and maintenance staff told us, but they should be back soon:

Your observant reader is correct that they have not been hearing the bells since the mechanism was broken.

Our Schulmerich Carillon digital bell system stopped working in late February and we had to give up the bells for Lent. We sent them to the manufacturer in Cincinnati for repairs (i.e., software upgrade). Fortunately, they were just returned and will be reinstalled and ringing again (this) week. We look forward to once again sharing the tower bells with our West Seattle community!

The installation crew arrived today, we’re told, and the church’s “goal is to have them working by this weekend.” The bell system has long been digital, by the way, as this 2019 WSB story reminds us.