By Mary O’KEEFE

On Good Friday, bells could be heard across the country to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the ride of Paul Revere and the beginning of the American Revolution. Congregations across the country came together in a symbolic act titled “Ringing the freedom bells for democracy.”

St. Luke’s of the Mountain Episcopal Church was one of the congregations that joined 100-plus other churches in ringing the freedom bells; however, the ringing of the bells is something St. Luke’s had been doing for quite some time. Every Friday the bells at the church of been rung.

Most know Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” which starts “Listen children and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” But Revere was just one of the riders on that night who warned of the British coming into Boston. 

On the evening of April 18, 1775, Robert Newman and John Pulling quietly entered the Old North Church and climbed to the top of the bell tower. They hung two lanterns near the windows and then left. This signal from the tallest building in the town of Boston could be seen throughout the city. It served as an early warning that a detachment of the British Army was crossing the Charles River and heading west toward the towns of Lexington and Concord, according to the Old North Church website.

By the end of the next night the American Revolutionary War had begun. 

“One if by land, two if by sea” was the signal if and how British soldiers were coming – by land or sea. 

Revere wrote a letter to Dr. Jeremy Belknap, corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in 1798. He shared his memories of the Battle of Lexington. 

“In the year 1773 I was imployed [employed] by the Select men of the Town of Boston to carry the Account of the Destruction of the Tea to New York; and afterwards, 1774 to carry their dispatches to New York and Philadelphia for Calling a Congress,” he wrote. 

He carried dispatches to Congress on several occasions. In the fall of 1774 and winter of 1775 he was a founding member of a committee to watch the movements of the British soldiers. This committee was also to gain any intelligence of the British movements. 

“We held our meetings at the Green-Dragon Tavern. We were so careful that our meetings should be kept Secret; that every time we met, every person swore upon the Bible, that they would not discover any of our transactions,” he wrote. 

On April 18, 1775, Revere wrote, he observed a number of British soldiers marching in the area. Dr. Joseph Warren (he was a prominent doctor and a key figure in the American Revolutionary War) had reached out to Revere and told him to go to Lexington. 

The reason for the ride was not only to alert residents of the impending British march but toalso warn of an arrest of two of the Revolutionary leaders – Samuel Adams and John Hancock, members of the Sons of Liberty who were staying in Lexington. 

Revere and William Dawes, who rode with Revere, alerted everyone along their route of the impending British attack. 

The bell ringing that occurred on April 18, 2025 was a way to honor the nation’s historic struggle against tyranny. Bells were rung from sea to sea … from a lighthouse in Maine to historic churches including St. Luke’s of the Mountains. 

Vanessa Ynda is a member of the St. Luke’s congregation and had been working to spread the word of the bell ringing on Fridays. She said she was delighted that this had become a nationwide event and that it was a way to commemorate the 250 years of democracy in America.