Please do post details of concerts, courses and other events into the Calendar
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Has anyone experience of a church which has successfully replaced their toaster with a pipe organ?
BarrieThanks for the advice, and the example of non availability of parts; I'll add that one to the list.Has anyone experience of a church which has successfully replaced their toaster with a pipe organ?Matt.
I know of an organ builder who has several redundant organs in stock, and no space for any more.I'm hopefully going to look at an organ in a redundant Baptist Church next weekend - but I guess unless it's something really special, it will be impossible to find it a new home - especially as it needs to be removed (I'm told) before the building is sold.
Small-town church ‘pulls out all the stops’ for a pipe dream
ABSAROKEE — When the pews are packed, barely 120 parishioners can squeeze into Immanuel Lutheran Church in Absarokee. But the small-town church’s new pipe organ will rival the power and sound surging from places of worship many times its size.The imposing pipe organ at Immanuel Lutheran is nearly ready to rumble. In mid-June, brothers Art, Dan and Steve Aadland, along with volunteer John Schatz, were busy positioning the pieces and parts that make up the behemoth.“Once this is up, you get noise,” Dan explained. “Then it’s a lot of work to tune and voice each pipe. Pipe organs must be individually voiced to suit the acoustics of each church.”In a last-minute push, they are putting everything in order for the pipe organ’s public introduction Sunday.To accomplish the grandiose pipe dream, the congregation raised $135,000 in two years — without touching Immanuel’s budget. Dick Hardel of Columbus took charge of the fundraising, which rallied contributions from 26 states and two foreign countries.Already, Steve Aadland says, the pipe organ’s value is estimated at three times that amount.“But the enthusiasm it has generated and the ministry it promises is priceless,” he said.Boasting nearly 700 pipes, Immanuel Lutheran’s pipe organ is both old and new. The heart of the instrument and more than half of the pipes come from Minnesota, where the brothers’ father, the late Rev. A.O. Aadland, built it. The newer pipes and components have been crafted by son Art and installed with assistance from a host of volunteers. As of mid-June, 80 individuals had invested 5,500 hours in the project.“This project was a monumental leap of faith for this little music-loving congregation,” Steve said. “It was always about God — not just about the pipe organ.”The story of the pipe organ is a story of family and community that traces back to the 1950s, when the Rev. Aadland arrived in Absarokee. Smitten with pipe organs at a young age, he decided to build one for Immanuel Lutheran. He enlisted his 10 children — including Dan, Steve and Art — to help build one for Immanuel Lutheran.“We as kids helped laminate the bass pipes,” Dan remembers. “And we wound magnets — 1,400 feet of fine wire we wound on a lathe for each solenoid.”Even then, Immanuel Lutheran’s pipe organ put Absarokee on the map. A yellowed section of The Billings Gazette, dated Nov. 18, 1956, features a front-page story on the church’s new instrument.“My dad built that from scrap,” Dan said. “And he invented the electronic action.”For years, the pipe organ supported the church’s longstanding musical tradition. But the Rev. Aadland was eventually sent to a new parish in Minnesota. Eventually, too, the pipe organ followed him — in pieces.As Steve explains it, after his father’s departure, Immanuel Lutheran hired someone to perform service work on the pipe organ. Instead, the unqualified “repairman” severely damaged the instrument. The components that survived were shipped to Minnesota, where Rev. Aadland rebuilt it for the Old Westbrook Lutheran Church. And there it still plays today.“But dad couldn’t quit building pipe organs,” Dan said.After retirement, the Rev. Aadland decided to build one for his own home. He built an organ room onto his house and then scoured the Minnesota woodlands for black walnut, which he used for the organ’s chest. While he worked, Art apprenticed alongside him. Art later turned the craft into his career, founding his own business, Aadland Pipe Organ Co. of Valley Springs, S.D.As the Aadland brothers recount their family history, it’s evident that music and pipe organs run deep in their blood. It should come as little surprise, then, that after their father died in the spring of 2009, all 10 Aadland siblings agreed that the organ should be given to Immanuel Lutheran.The decision came at the same time that the church was pondering a solution for its electronic organ, which was in serious need of repair.“It wouldn’t be the right thing for every church to do, but music is just such a huge part of this church,” said Dan, who has served as Immanuel Lutheran’s choir director for the past 25 to 30 years. “There are 22 in our choir, more men than women, and we tackle challenging stuff. Our congregation sings hymns in four-part harmony.”The decision to donate the organ came easily. But making it happen did not.“We had to cut a pillar out of his (Rev. Aadland’s) house just to get it out,” Dan said, smiling. “Then it took six of us to carry it to the horse trailer.”As the organ made its way to Montana, Art hunkered down in his South Dakota shop. Meticulous by nature, he devoted thousands of hours to expanding and updating his father’s creation.Meanwhile, back in Absarokee, an army of volunteers rallied. Nine prayer teams regularly prayed for the project as others dug into the grunt work. They gutted the century-old steeple — first scouring it of bat dung and bird skeletons – to transform it into a pristine organ chamber. Likewise, volunteers, under Art’s tutelage, learned how to remove dents and dings from the old pipes.With the specific acoustics of the Immanuel Lutheran and its parabolic ceiling, “you just feel like the choir is alive,” Dan says.Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_9370b7d5-b53b-5c2c-8ddd-670904364a8b.html#ixzz1zvOgDx2W
The Immanuel Lutheran Church, at 301 South Montana Ave. in Absarokee, will dedicate its new pipe organ during regular services at 10 a.m. on Sunday.The dedication will feature three organists, along with a mass adult choir and children’s choir.At 3 p.m. that afternoon, the public is invited to a concert/recital by Dr. Michael J. Elsbernd, director of Music Ministry and Principal Organist at First Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, S.D. His performance will feature a variety of selections showing the versatility and power of the new pipe organ.