Churches across the Monadnock Region will be ringing their bells each Thursday in the coming weeks in a show of solidarity for Ukraine after Russia invaded the country.

According to Mary Vallier-Kaplan, who is on the governing board of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Peterborough, the idea came to her after hearing about churches in Europe ringing their bells.

“I was like, ‘What can we do that’s simple and can happen quickly and brings other people into the moment?’” she said. “And then I said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do like what they’re doing in Europe?’ and it sort of feels cool to connect with the whole world.”

Vallier-Kaplan and others had been searching for a way to get involved somehow, she said.

“We were thinking about what we could do in response to this horrible event,” said Dottie Bauer, who serves on the Monadnock Interfaith Council. “Just this feeling of helplessness and what can we do. Looking for a way to come together and take a stand, and find a way to say, ‘This is wrong, and what can we do to protect everybody’s freedom?’”

The idea spread from there, she said, to other churches in the region.

“It was a lot of emails,” said Bauer. “It was a lot of back-and-forth, a few Zoom meetings, but we all organized the whole thing.”

Churches participating include the Unitarian Universalist Church, All Saints’ Episcopal Church and Union Congregational in Peterborough, United Church of Jaffrey, Dublin Community  Church and Harrisville Community Church. 

“That was part of our hope, to just inspire other people to do the same and join in,” said Vallier-Kaplan. “It just ballooned from there.”

She said they also spread the idea to Unitarian Univeralist Action New Hampshire, a social justice group associated with the the ministry, in the hopes of having the idea move throughout the state. It hasn’t caught on outside of Europe very much, she said, and they hope to help it spread further. 

The bell-ringing is set for Thursdays in commemoration of the day of the week Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The bells will ring at 4:30 p.m. for five minutes.

“It was really a shared effort of, what’s something we can do to make people stop and think,” said Bauer. “To stop and think about how fortunate we are, and then mobilize, whether you want to send prayers or healing energy, or find places to contribute that are doing work on the ground in Ukraine.”

Susan Copley, who also serves on the Interfaith Council as well as on boards at the Unitarian Universalist Church, helped organize volunteers to ring their steeple bell. They are currently scheduled to continue throughout April. 

“For us, it’s spiritual outreach as well,” she said. “We’re encouraging people to pause when they hear those bells and think about how lucky we are to live in a relatively safe area of the country and the world, and what it must be like for people to be experiencing this devastating loss every day. This is a very small gesture, but it helps stimulate people to think more about Ukraine. We have to go on living and reminding ourselves and our children of all the hope in the world.”

Copley pointed out that church bells have historically been used to signal crises or emergencies, including fires.

“It’s historically been used to kind of rally people around families and emergencies and disasters,” she said. “It’s continuing that historical tradition.”

The organizers said that the bell-ringing will continue until it no longer seems necessary. Vallier-Kaplan that they will know when the time is right to stop, but until then, she said she hopes people who notice the bells ringing will stop to wonder why, and remember the war in Ukraine.

“The war is continuing, and the people in Ukraine and the surrounding and even the Russian soldiers are in such a challenging moment in their lives, in humanity, and yet we are all connected,” she said. “We just want to inspire other people to think about it once a week and not forget.”

“Our goal here was to get people to pay attention, and we feel like we’ve accomplished that,” said Bauer. 

“This is obviously somewhere far, far away from Peterborough,” said Copley. “But it still touches our hearts. We’re connected in more ways than we know.”