As Bishop Paul Colton prepares to bring his more than 27-year tenure as Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross to a close, he announced at the Diocesan Synod (27 September 2025) that he and his family had commissioned a new bell from Matthew Higby & Co Ltd (based in Bath, Somerset) to be presented as a parting gift to the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross and its future synods and councils.
The bell, now affectionately named The Colton Bell, has been placed in a beautifully crafted wooden presentation box and carrying case made by Kevin Carey, Assistant Principal and Woodwork and Construction Studies teacher at Ashton School, Cork. Kevin’s skilled craftsmanship ensures that the bell is held and displayed with dignity and permanence, adding a further layer of community contribution to this meaningful gift.
In his Synod address, Bishop Colton explained that in the early Celtic Church bells were given to bishops as a symbol of their office and used to call the people together. He also noted the bell-ringing tradition among church bell-ringers. The link between Bath (where the bell company is based) and the diocese was also mentioned: Bishop Colton pointed out that his predecessor, Bishop Isaac Mann (1772-1788), died in Bath and was brought back to Cork for burial.
For many years, whenever diocesan gatherings or synods threatened to run away with themselves (or people proved difficult to be summoned back from their tea break), salvation arrived in the form of Mrs Susan Colton’s trusty school bell. With characteristic generosity, she would lend it to proceedings so that there was at least one way to keep clergy and laity in line. The bell, like its owner, proved faithful, good-humoured, and indispensable (proof that sometimes it takes a schoolteacher’s touch to keep a diocese behaving itself).
Thus the new Colton Bell stands as a ‘thank-offering’ for years of mission and ministry together, and as a practical device for the future: ‘to use in your proceedings henceforth.’ It marks the end of Bishop Colton’s long tenure and the Diocese’s transition to new leadership, while leaving behind a tangible symbol of his time and service. It gives the Diocese its own instrument for assembly, literal and metaphorical, to call people together for worship, deliberation and mission.
As the Diocese moves into its next chapter, the bell will serve as a reminder: we are a people gathered and a church assembled. Whenever that bell rings, clergy and lay, volunteers and visitors, will hear its summons to worship, to act, to listen, to serve. In the wise words of Bishop Colton:
The bell calls us together … to be the worshipping people that God asks us to be.
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