Living Still
As an organist and having written my doctoral dissertation on a famous American organbuilder, I am interested in all things pipe organ. It is an addiction, complete with its own vocabulary. Anytime a few organists gather, you can be certain that a many hour conversation will ensue about instruments, music, and musicians. Of course, as a rather niche interest, my wife was quick to humble me early in my marriage by quipping, “Organists are not famous…you’re only famous with each other.” She may be right.
In any case, in my passion and love for the organ, I frequently visit websites of organbuilders, admiring their new projects and keeping myself informed on what is going on in the industry. As a field, organbuilding continues to flourish and currently there is more work than workers, a positive sign of a continued bright future for the “King of Instruments,” as Mozart once described.
One builder that I follow, John Bishop, is not a builder of new pipe organs, but instead, runs a service dedicated to the preservation and relocation of used pipe organs called The Organ Clearing House. Churches, institutions, and private individuals use John’s service for the sale and relocation of pipe organs.
Sometimes organs become available because a better or more appropriately sized new pipe organ is commissioned to replace what is currently in service. House and practice instruments become available when an organist has come to the end of their career or as a result in changes at a college or university. My friend and colleague John Brock’s house organ is currently for sale on the site following his sudden passing in November. John gave a recital at Emmanuel August 25, 2017, as part of our Fridays on the Fisk organ series that we once hosted at the church.
Most often though, organs become available when a church or school closes. This is always something of a sad occasion. When these instruments come onto the marketplace, I always find myself trying to sort out exactly what happened in the church or school that such a sad fate has befallen the instrument of consideration. John’s newest listing is for a grand organ of 54 ranks, 3,314 pipes, built in 1958 by the Reuter Organ Company for University Place Christian Church in Champaign, Illinois. In its time, it was one of the most notable instruments in Central Illinois, and the church’s proximity to the University of Illinois made it an influential instrument for decades for those studying the organ and sacred music at the university.
It didn’t take me long to discover that the grand gothic-inspired church, built at the height of the depression following a fire that had destroyed their previous building, had been sold to a developer who plans to demolish the church for the construction of new apartments. It is a sad ending. Admirably, the church is offering the organ free to a church or other institution that will see to the renovation and reinstallation of the instrument where the organ will serve again with purpose. Additionally, the church will pay for dismantling and packing the organ. Usually, those costs are left for the buyer, but in this circumstance, it is clear that the people of University Place Christian Church are offering a gift of love and that even in its last days, continue to honor the legacy of the instrument and its donors.
In any case, in my passion and love for the organ, I frequently visit websites of organbuilders, admiring their new projects and keeping myself informed on what is going on in the industry. As a field, organbuilding continues to flourish and currently there is more work than workers, a positive sign of a continued bright future for the “King of Instruments,” as Mozart once described.
In 1957, a book by Denie Dungan titled, “Lest we forget: a history of University Place Christian Church, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, 1883-1957” was published. It is available in reprint or digitally at archive.org. I spent some time reading through the 234 pages of church history. The history outlines the work of the founding minister, its earliest members, the building of the first church in 1902, the expansion of the church in 1910 which more than doubled its size to a capacity of 750, the subsequent complete destruction of the church by fire in 1932, the construction of a new church in 1933, Sunday School activity, youth activity, outreach activities, and every other detail you might expect in such a tome. In the preface, the author wrote the following:
“A church is known and understood and loved from as many points of view as there are members and neighbors. It is with feelings of humility and inadequacy that this history is presented. Events and names which you feel are important may have been omitted. You are urged to remember that a church as large and influential as University Place Christian Church is the composite of the work of numberless persons and the outcome of innumerable events which cannot be known or woven together satisfactorily in one book by an inexperienced historian.” (September 7, 1956)
I love the sentiment of her words, in particular, “the composite of the work of numberless persons and the outcome of innumerable events which cannot be known or woven together satisfactorily…”. If there was ever a description of the work of the Holy Spirit by a church historian, she has in some sense captured it in these words. Emmanuel is indeed the composite she describes and the outcome of innumerable events, woven together by God. As it is Trinity Sunday this week, we are reminded that we worship a triune God - three in one, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that a church becomes a “woven composite.”
When Denie Dungan wrote her history of University Place Christian Church there were 1300 members on the rolls. Seventy years later and the once thriving church is no longer. The stained-glass windows will hopefully find a new home. The organ will hopefully lead another congregation in song. In the best circumstance, the pews, hymnals and Bibles will serve a new parish. When the building becomes a memory and apartments take its place, what remains will be the good works done by a people of faith. What will remain are the memories of being in community – worship, baptism, marriage, and death – told either through oral tradition and photographs, or in the years to come, as a notation in someone’s ancestry.com profile. What will remain is the history recorded by Denie Dungan. No matter the tenure of a church, its institutional prowess, or quite frankly it’s theological bend, the people of University Place Christian Church will forever be connected to all of us. Why? Because they walked “the way,” just as we do today. Even though we may not have known one another, we are forever connected as brothers and sisters in the wider communion of faith. That is something I deeply appreciate, honor, and cherish and it is through their actions and their deep faith, that we in some sense gain eternal life as well, passing the Good News from one generation to the next. Witnessing and loving our neighbors. Doing good works. Gathering around the table. Sharing the common cup. From here and until the last day.
This Sunday, we will sing Hymn 558, Faith of our fathers! Living still. The author of the text, ordained as an Anglican priest in 1839, entered the Roman Catholic Church in 1845. In many editions of the hymn, “Fathers” is invariably capitalized, suggesting that he had primarily in mind the priests who went, under Queen Elizabeth I and for decades thereafter, in very real danger of “dungeon, fire and sword.” The tune is representative of the kind of congregational music that was generated by the Roman Catholic revival movement in the mid-nineteenth-century Britain. In The Hymnal 1982, “Fathers” is seen in lower case, referencing those who have passed the faith to us. As verse three notes, “we will love both friend and foe in all our strife: and preach thee, too, as love knows how, by kindly deeds and virtuous life. Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.”
Dr. Homer A. Ferguson III
Organist/Choirmaster