Loading...Over the past two years, the parish of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Louisville has realized that its dying electronic organ must be replaced. So, an organ advisory committee was formed and an "organ crawl" organized.
The organ advisory committee was formed with a diverse group of members of the choir, congregation and the vestry, who visited several local churches one Sunday afternoon on an “organ crawl” to get a “feel” for a pipe organ.
One of the committee's stops was the former St. John's Episcopal Church in Louisville, where I was the organist and choirmaster during the 1990s. St. John's was disbanded and its members joined with Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Southern Parkway, forming a new congregation named Resurrection Episcopal Church. The old St. John's building was sold to "Christ's Church for Our Community" a congregation that had no need for a pipe organ.
During the early 1990s, St. John's was a small parish in numbers, but it had a rich history of music. As the story goes, the organ was purchased during the 1960's from Hope Moravian Church at Hope, Indiana. It was a small rank Wick organ that would be an addition to the church's 1950's Kilgen organ.
Thurman Powell, a longtime congregant, led the way for purchasing and moving the instrument to St. John's. I can
remember him telling me the story of how the parish came together as a church to physically move and install the organ with the help of local organ builders. He was very proud and loved the idea merging the two instruments to create a complete sound for the sanctuary.
The organ, in need of a new home for about 10 years, is about to be part of a new story at another parish. After receiving an organ builder's assessment for refurbishing and installing it, the St. Thomas vestry approved its purchase and storage until installation. The congregation is now involved in raising funds for the project, and it is hoped that the organ will be in place within the year.
A photo album, documenting the dismantling of the organ, provides a detailed glimpse of inner workings of what St. Thomas's organist calls the "king of instruments."
