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More organs will disappear if belief is only 2 dimensional paper thin

Started by David Pinnegar, August 03, 2011, 05:59:17 PM

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David Pinnegar

Hi!

Many query why a section on belief is on an Organ website. Apparently the organ should be considered within the dessicated atmosphere of secularism. But all who know about organs know that dessication caused by artificial central heating causes the soundboards to warp and split; runs, ciphers and ruination ensue.

Yesterday I was asked to go to visit and report on an organ in Tunbridge Wells for possible export to South Africa. A superb instrument with a full specification and a celebratory triumphant en chamade trumpet. Unbelief of Tunbridge Wells sees no need for it any more. The Methodist Church wants to demolish, retract and retreat into a "more manageable" building.

As a result our splendid organs, our heritage, is disappearing to South Africa.

Why? Because the 2 dimensional literal kindergarten dumbing down of the meaning of the words on the pages is seen to be only paper thin and their unmeaningfulness is seen to be invalid. If we continue not to talk about how belief is real, and is relevant, then no-one will understand how enriching it can be.

Instead, enrichment is seen only in terms of the manufacturers of iPhones and iPads who have more disposable cash at the moment than the United States of America. Enrichment is seen only as the acquisition of such all singing all dancing products. But life is not all singing all dancing all the time and the illusion that materialistic comfort is permanent is both unsustainable and unreal. All engrossing muzak in superstores and the beat of modern times emanating from car radios or implanted by headphones into pedestrians is intended to alleviate the fear of people of their thoughts.

This is the place of organs and organ music. Sundays are the times when the material world still can stay still and buildings inhabited by organs can lead people to the place of Peace in their hearts.

Until we celebrate this, more and more organs will disappear.

In working with a young person recently who required to build new foundations in his life, it was necessary to learn how to enable him as someone who had paid no attention to matters of God, to understand how teachings of which he might have been familiar from youth were relevant to his life. The post in Atheist's Corner on The Lord's Prayer being Good for Mental Health resulted. In this age of cuts, why cost the NHS a fortune in consultants when the Lord's Prayer and other teachings of Christ can do it for free?

If priests will actually address more than merely the converted, the place of Organs has a large part to play in people's lives, but people have to be able to take on the meanings, not merely the words.

Understanding how the world works and coming to an understanding of the behaviour of the Unseen, Everywhere and All Powerful is akin to approaching an enormous palace with a front, a front facade and no front door.


In order to discover what is inside, one has to get behind the facade.


Such is God.

The door in the temple is stoned up - a doorway only for the spirit. In the absence of a door on the front, one finds an arched window at the side. Half the window is false with only black painted wall behind whilst the other half is a constricted stone passage that turns the corner inside and leads into the womb of the temple. This is the birth canal through which one has to travel in order to find rebirth. The words on the page are only the facade, and they offput many.

Best wishes

David P

KB7DQH

QuoteBecause the 2 dimensional literal kindergarten dumbing down of the meaning of the words on the pages is seen to be only paper thin and their unmeaningfulness is seen to be invalid. If we continue not to talk about how belief is real, and is relevant, then no-one will understand how enriching it can be.

I found someone who would agree...

http://www.t-g.com/story/1783452.html

QuoteListen to the music
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Doug Dezotell
My mother used to play the organ, and I was one of her biggest fans.

She never had an organ of her own until she was in her 60s and her second husband bought her one. She sure was proud that she finally had her own musical instrument to sit at and play her favorite songs.

That organ sat in a prominent place in the living room of her townhouse until it was ruined by floodwaters in 1997.

When I was a little boy, one of my mother's sisters had a beautiful old pump-organ that sat in her living room. Every time we would visit my aunt's home, Mom would sit down and pump the pedals of that organ to get the bellows working. Then she would play us a song.

My mother loved to dance, so she would play some of her favorite old dance numbers and my siblings and I would dance along.

Mom also loved to play hymns on the organ. She loved the old hymns of the church.

The last years of her life, my mother lived in an assisted living center. Some afternoons she would go down to the common area and sit down at the keyboard there and she would play some of her favorite songs. Her neighbors enjoyed the entertainment. I would have loved to have been there to listen too.

I remember when the church that I grew up in in Grand Forks, North Dakota put in the large pipe organ in the balcony. At that time it was the largest pipe organ in a church in the Midwest. It's still there at United Lutheran Church and it still sounds amazing.

My mom loved that organ, and so did I.

One of my favorite hymns to hear played on those amazing pipes was the song composed by Martin Luther, "A Mighty Fortress is our God."

That song of worship has been called "The Battle Hymn of the Reformation," and "the greatest hymn of the greatest man of the greatest period of German history." That hymn is such a majestic vehicle of praise to our creator.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing:

Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;

The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.

I can still hear the sound of that organ playing as the choir and congregation of United Lutheran sang along. That to me is a true form of worship.

I don't know if my mother ever went up into that balcony and sat at the keys of that grand pipe organ, moved her feet across those pedals, and played a song, but she probably wanted to. And I would have loved to hear her play too.

We have a wonderful organ player at Cannon United Methodist here in Shelbyville. Shelley Pinkston plays the organ and the piano and she does an amazing job. We are so blessed to have her as a part of our worship team.

When I hear her playing the organ at the beginning of our worship services, I think of my how my mother would have enjoyed hearing her play. And Mom would have loved joining her at the keyboard.

-- Doug Dezotell is the pastor of Mt. Lebanon UMC and Cannon UMC. He is a former staff writer for the Times-Gazette, and he is a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a friend to many. He can be contacted at dougmdezotell@yahoo.com.

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

If one increases their "dimension of belief" organs need not disappear... ;)

http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,1354.0.html should provide some examples ;D
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."