There is something very right about being on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon early on a Sunday afternoon, when the massive tower bells of Southminster Presbyterian Church are pealing.

The sound is bold yet comforting, taking you back to a place and time you've probably never been, as this is the only change-ringing tower in Western Pennsylvania and among fewer than 50 in North America.

I was allowed to climb into the "Peace Tower" a couple of Sundays back to see the bell ringers practice the ancient art. Five were there that noon hour, each pulling hard on a rope and grabbing it again as it bounced up. Don Morrison, the ringing master, called the orders like a coxswain:

"Three to two! ... Two to four! ... Seven to two! ... Two to treble!"

Change ringing is said to be a place where music, mathematics and sport meet. The sound is in no way melodic, but a proper peal, with the sound of each bell lapping over its echoing predecessor, is the sabbath challenge.

"It's like trying to play the drums by throwing baseballs at 'em from across the room," Mr. Morrison said.

Southminster dedicated its eight English bells, which rise steadily in size from 494 to 917 pounds, less than seven years ago, more than 75 years after the tower was constructed.

I had neither heard them nor heard of them until a few weeks ago when I wrote a column about an errant, one-ton, 300-year-old English bell that has spent more than 15 years sitting unceremoniously in a Downtown parking garage. A reader read that and tipped me to its Southminster cousins.

Thomas C. Flynn, of Franklinton, N.C., was that reader, and he is also the man who brought the bells to Southminster -- though it took 33 years.

Mr. Flynn, now 73, became the church's minister of music in 1969, and immediately launched a handbell ringing group with the church's youth. He'd take the Southminster Ringers on 17 international tours, and on a trip to the United Kingdom they saw tower ringing up close. Once they saw folks who knew the ropes, any chance of turning Southminster's empty, 36-square-foot-tower room into a handball court (a proposal from a youth minister way back when) ended.

When Helen Ruth Henderson, daughter of the co-founder of Mine Safety Appliances, died in 1999, her daughter, Helen Lee Henderson, decided the best way to memorialize her mother would be with a Peace Tower. Mr. Flynn began searching for bells and found six that were removed from a church in Preston, England. Four dated to 1814, and one had been dedicated to King George III, who was on the throne when a fellow named William Pitt was the big man in Parliament.

These six bells were retuned at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, the same foundry that cast both the Liberty Bell and a 131/2-ton bell that went up in a London clock tower 150 years ago and became Big Ben. The foundry also cast two more bells for the Mt. Lebanon church, completing an octave.

Each bell has the word "PEACE" cast or engraved in two languages on opposite sides, 16 languages in all, from Cheyenne to Swahili. The big bells began ringing here late in 2002.

The ringers -- Mr. Morrison, Matt Nelson, Jim Strader, Mary Bragdon and Ross Finbow on the Sunday I visited -- can't think about all the history when they're on the ropes. This skill goes back centuries but they have to be in the moment.

Ringers needn't be a member of the church or even a Christian, but Mr. Strader, a member of the church for more than 30 years, says that for him the ask is "an affirmation of the service" as his fellow parishioners file out.

When the bells didn't ring a few weeks ago, Ms. Bragdon said, people noticed. Congregants also seem to be aware when too few ringers show up and only a few bells ring; the group is always looking for more ringers. (Call Mr. Morrison at 412-983-3830.)

The wool "sallies" that sheath the ropes, by the way, are blue, black and gold. Blue and gold are the Mt. Lebanon High School colors, black and gold are Pittsburgh's colors and, black and blue are the colors ringers avoid by staying out of each other's way.

The Peace Tower is all about good combinations.