First Congregational Church's big bell sits motionless in its bell tower in Fall River, Mass. The church has about $20,000 toward its goal of $35,000 to replace the wooden cradle that holds the bell, which dates to about 1830 and last rang eight years ago.

FALL RIVER, Mass. — The notion of a church bell is the notion of a community needing to know.

So, church bells rang the time, rang when it was almost time for services, rang for the dead and the newly wed, rang for the Angelus, the prayer Catholics say to celebrate Mary, mother of Christ.

Today, a lot of the city’s churches contain bells that never ring. Instead, what we hear when we hear “church bells” is the sound of recorded bells, played over a loudspeaker.

“Most of the Catholic churches in the city are doing things electronically,” says John Kearns, a spokesman for the Diocese of Fall River.

In most cases, Kearns said, churches have bells but the steeples in which they hang are so structurally compromised, the bells can’t be rung and the churches can’t afford the restoration work.

Kearns said the bells can’t be rung at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption.

“Someday, they’d like to address that. It’s not safe to ring the bells right now.” he said.

At First Congregational Church on Rock Street, they are doing something.

Right now, said Pastor Martin Hall, the church has about $20,000 toward its goal of $35,000.

“We’ve got $7,500 in cash and another $13,000 in pledges,” Hall said.

The bell at First Congregational dates to about 1830 and last rang eight years ago. The wooden cradle that holds the bell was rotted. The $35,000 is for a replacement.

“We’ve got a big rummage sale coming up in May,” Hall said.

Asked if his church is playing electronic bell music, Hall was brief.

“We have nothing,” he said. “We’d rather invest the money in ringing the bell than in anything electronic.”

MEMBER EXCHANGE ADVANCE FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2015 — In this undated photo the bell tower of Santo Christo church stands above Columbia Street in Fall River, Mass. Fall River has always been a city of bells, from the Durfee bells, just recently restored, to the bells in church steeples that, though their ranks grow thinner every year, still dot the city like chips of brighter stone dot its famous gray granite. There were bells in some of the city’s mills. (AP Photo/Herald News, Jack Foley)