TAMPA (WFLA) – You can’t see it from the street, but tucked away on the roof of First Baptist Church of Tampa is a pretty special tower. The chimes tower has been getting a big makeover over the last year.
“God’s hand was in the whole thing,” said Ed Clayton as he stood on the roof looking at the chimes.
Clayton has been a member of the church since the 1990s. He’s a deacon, and also works on anything that needs maintenance. These chimes are his biggest project.
“They haven’t played in the last 50 years,” he said.
He’s put in hours to restore them for the church.
“He uses his gifts and his talents for God. His gifts and talents are building and working on things,” said Senior Pastor Bob Block.
It’s been a big undertaking that started almost a year ago.
He was talking to one of the pastors about some things he wanted to see happen to the church.
“There’s one thing I’d like to do before I leave this church. That’s to get these chimes to run again,” he said.
The church started collecting money from parishioners. They needed $86,000, but the donations stopped at $50,000, until an anonymous person called Clayton.
“He said, ‘How much more money do we need to do the chimes?’ I called him back and told him how much and next thing I know all the money’s there.”
Since then, he’s been working to replace the strikers. The chimes are still the original brass ones that will play.
“The first time they played was Christmas Eve 1925,” he said.
It was a tradition that happened every year until they stopped working. Now the tradition is back at the most appropriate time.
“They will play again for the first time 2017 on Christmas Eve,” said Clayton with a twinkle in his eye.
The Christmas Eve service at First Baptist Church of Tampa is at 5 p.m.
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