chiming, was request for help

[Laura Dickerson]

    At the Church of the Advent in Boston, Massachusetts, the tailors + 
age are rung at the END of the funeral.  No possible association with 
informing the populace.  It's meant to be some sort of tribute, I guess,
and apparently is quite meaningful to people.  Traditions, however much 
borrowed and then changed, can be emotionally important.  The bells were 
stopped for a while during repairs and the first ringing after that was 
for a funeral - a couple of people mentioned to me their worries that 
the ringing wouldn't happen, and their relief that it did.
Laura Dickerson