By Katharine Schroeder | Parish Administrator | St. Thomas Episcopal Church
For 123 years, a bronze bell called worshipers to The Church of the Holy Cross in Aurora, North Carolina. When the church closed in 2012, the bell fell silent.
In 2017, the Diocese of East Carolina granted permission to relocate the bell to St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Oriental, but the project stalled. In 2024, the idea resurfaced and after renewed diocesan approval, St. Thomas parishioner Capt. Ron Diamond, who lives in Oriental with his wife Angi, volunteered to oversee the move.
Diamond and Adam Green transported the bell to Oriental, and the parish family rallied to clean it up and build a tower. Thanks to generous donations through the creatively named A-Peal of Love campaign and the Men’s Fellowship Group’s matching contributions, construction was completed in June 2026.
But a mystery remained. Why was the bell inscribed “Chapel of the Cross, Sept. 1889” rather than “The Church of the Holy Cross”?
Research revealed that a small chapel, built in Aurora in 1885 to serve worshipers living far from their parish church, was named Chapel of the Cross. In 1889, J.B. Bonner, a wealthy congregant, purchased the bell ($103.63, paid in cash and shipped to Aurora via the Old Dominion Steamship Line). In 1917, the larger Church of the Holy Cross replaced the Chapel of the Cross as the parish’s principal place of worship, and the bell moved with it.
Now, this historic bell has found a new home at St. Thomas, where it will ring again. For more information, call 252 249-0256
