The Times publishes call for an archbishop with a "new theology"

[David Pinnegar]

On Tuesday 13th September The Times published a letter from Brian W.J.G. Wilson of Cleeve Bristol discussing the possibility of the retirement of the Archbishop of Canterbury suggesting that the modern day required skills more than the ability to Twitter and Blog . . . :

What we all need is a new theology for a new age: a theology that will win the assent of thinking people, who have abandoned traditional churches and their outdated mythologies, while sensitively weaning traditionalists to a more mature understandning of the way in which modern scholarship and science have transformed our interpretation of the gospels.

In view of the Zurich Resolution, which firmly links the decline of the organ with the decline of appreciation of churches, the invitation on this forum to those of faith and love of the organ is wholly justified and appropriate: to explore our understanding of the subject of God and of Faith, within our understanding of the modern world and the everyday, finding ways to explain its relevance to those lost by the pseudospheres of materialism and atheism that provide the illusion of being able to do just fine.

I have tried to kick-start discussions from both atheist and theist points of view, and merely am mocked by those who possibly think I'm merely trying to posit myself as guru. On a thread reporting belief in a "non-existent god" (somewhat curiously self contradictory concept clearly inviting thought and debate), instead of people exercising intellectual tools (perhaps asking in what form the assumption was that those followers felt the conventional view of god to not exist and inviting analysis of the kernal of god implicit in their faith) two members blatantly evaporated in fury and many former prolific writers have been silent . . .

. . . Some hope of any analysis of theology in the spirit of what an archbishop might lead, or of any revival at all of the associated fortunes of the organ as an instrument together with its generally accustomed abode.

Does no-one dare engage in discussion about what God really means?

It's not for our benefit that I attempt to kick-start such discussion but for those young people in the paucity of education that an atheist  society (by which I mean not a thought view of atheism but a life absent of any thought) leaves young people to riot for lack of better things to do and a lack of appreciation of the wealth that Christianity - and organ playing - makes available to all.

Best wishes

David P

[Jonathan Lane]

In view of the Zurich Resolution, which firmly links the decline of the organ with the decline of appreciation of churches,

I have to wonder whether it isn't the other way round, the decline in appreciation of churches being caused directly by the decline in interest in the organ!

Jonathan

[KB7DQH]

I have to wonder whether it isn't the other way round, the decline in appreciation of churches being caused directly by the decline in interest in the organ!

Surely You Jest :o >:(

It is likely that my "worldview" is blinkered by the obvious liberalist bias which infects the "free press"
however it is apparent that the press reports regarding the religious activities of the communities served have so far escaped unscathed :o

Thus far my observations of the "chatter" regarding pipe organs is for the most part "positiv."

Witness the last half-dozen or so reports regarding the restoration of the Stambaugh Skinner ;D

And the continuing interest in a Hockey team owner's decision, as part of the sports facility upgrade, to install a real air breathing pipe organ :o

Wire services carrying news that the Skinner organ removed from Trinity Episcopal, Wall Street, New York, has found a new home and its restoration is in progress 8) 8) 8) and likewise the Aeolian-Skinner heroically rescued from the wrecking ball in Detroit...

Moreover the recent earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand have certainly tested the resolve of that population, especially concerning the future of pipe organs there, culminating in the death of 3 people attempting the rescue of a threatened instrument.   Although tragic--  their loss has focused attention to the fate of the King of Instruments-- Globally.

...The recent grammy award-- to an organist, whose "day job" consists of running the organ department at the Julliard School of Music-- For an album... Not of Bach-- but Olivier Messaien ??? ??? ??? 

And what of the group of "techie" high-school age kids over in Bellevue, Washington, working on...
a pipe organ... Lady Gaga playing the "Monster in Sydney for her little monsters" :o

"Since we're at Royal Albert Hall, It would be rude not to play this beast"-- Matthew Bellamy...

Not to mention all those among us who have spent many tens of thousands on their home HI-FI systems,  and evaluate their ability to accurately reproduce recorded music-- by using high-quality CD's of pipe organs!  I have yet to meet a "real" audiophile that DIDN'T have a copy of "Pomp and Pipes" in their record collection.  When they "show off" their system that seems to be the one disc "everyone knows" ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D   Much of the discussion on related forums deals with the construction of proper speaker enclosures to ensure the accurate reproduction of those notes that only a pipe organ can play...

Oddly enough- Silent Movies are becoming popular yet again-- and theaters with organs are restoring or have restored their instruments, and other theaters whose pipe organs have long since gone are seeking to install them back into their chambers...


Some even build them into desks!
http://boingboing.net/2011/09/19/one-of-a-kind-desk-hides-a-pipe-organ-and-fluidic-computer.html

Housefish has a writeup on Kagen Schaefer's pipe-organ desk, which hides in its drawers a pipe organ that doubles as a fluidic computer, and which has stolen my heart:

    At first glance, it's a relatively ordinary desk, albeit very finely made out of exceptional wood, and with an unusual number of small drawers. Open a drawer though, and there's a surprise- each drawer operates a wooden pipe organ tube on the back. Opening different drawers plays different notes and lets you play songs. If I stopped right there, a wooden pipe organ desk would already rank among the most novel and impressive pieces of wooden furniture either of us has seen.

    But there's another secret. Inside the desk is a fluidic computer, operated entirely by the air pressure pulses created by opening and closing the drawers. This has been programmed so that playing a predetermined sequence of notes opens a secret compartment somewhere on the desk. It's also reprogrammable, so you can set it to open when you play the theme to Star Wars, or whatever you want. And in case it wasn't clear, this is made entirely of wood; there are no electronics of any kind. It is literally something that could have been built using technology available 500 years ago.

Sorry Jonathan... Too much evidence to the contrary...

Eric
KB7DQH

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

Jonathan - I think you're right in suggesting half a dozen of one and six of the other - where there is enthusiasm from an encumbent in bells or organs, such things can draw vibrancy into the life of the building . . . and in an appropriate way rather than http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrtvQPMAc1U which I felt not to be of the spirit of "Lord make clean our hearts within us" . . .

However, although as Eric notes, there is a very very small seed of enthusiastic green shots, the general picture
http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,914.msg4316.html#msg4316
is not pretty and I'm sure the observation of Dr Britta Martini is quite universal:

Organ and Church are like horse and carriage. The celebrate together and suffer together. In Zurich half the churches will have to close.

In saying that the organ has to escape the church ignores the heritage. There is no theology of church music. In many churches there is no organ and no singers and sometimes only 3 parishioners.

Clearly efforts are needed concurrently in both areas . . . organ and perceptions and relevance of faith . . .

Best wishes

David P

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

Upon reading "The Way of Wyrd" at the suggestion of a visitor and after a couple of decades of other research I'm just wondering if there is a simple solution to the tenet of the letter published by The Times.

When first seeing the letter, I thought that the call for a "New Theology" was really rather worrying - perhaps most in ambiguity and possibly beholding descent into a disorder of a diverse mishmash of ideas.

Perhaps might it be interesting to consider that the problem is not that the old theology isn't good enough - but actually that we have forgotten where we came from . . . .

The landmark for the second millenium of civilisation after Christ was arguably the Crusade in Spain in the year 1180 when Christians entered Teledo. They discovered the Arab libraries in which were preserved the Greek Myths. These were recognised to be telling a similar story to that of Genesis and the Renaissance resulted and flourished, leading into the Enlightenment.

During this period, Christianity as the worship of God was seen to be all encompassing. Christianity had subsumed the stories and myths of the people it conquered and was seen to be superior, by encompassing their inclusion as a function of God. Apparently pagan rites of the harvest were subsumed into an understanding of the work of God and the natural cycles of sowing of seed, growing of crops, harvest, winter death and rebirth in the new growing season were seen in this light whilst resurrection analogies of Mithras and Zarathustra easily followed through into Christianity. To those of familiarity with these former traditions, Christianity was enabled to encompass and include them and more. It was understood with knowledge of the old included, with those ideas in the consciousness behind the new and all encompassing religion.

We are now a long way from the 1611 language, intellect, knowledge and understanding of the Bible. People looking now at Genesis 6 -

"And there were giants in the earth at that time. And aslo after that, when the Sons of God came into the daughters of men, their issue were the men of renown"

. . . have generally little clue as to what this passage was referring. In contrast, everyone from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and onwards, until the decline and end of popularly taught and understood classical education, knew exactly what was being referred to.

It's in this way that without the foundation of formerly common knowledge of which everyone used to be aware, but which has not been taught widely or at all since the 1960s, far from the Christian view of God as being complete and all encompassing, Christianity is now capable of being perceived as inadequate, incomplete, empty and at odds with all around it - a wholly mistaken perspective. To those who aren't aware of how the Christian view of God is inclusive, atheism and a mishmash of New Age "rediscoveries" are options, neither of which offer such a complete view of the world.

To those who think that modern science is the answer even our modern science is having to be questioned about the fundamental universality of Einsteinian understanding. The foundation of all our industry, engineering and perceived industrial progress is in itself incomplete. String theory has been developed in multiple dimensions and the universe appears a good deal more complicated than we generally percieve it in three or four of the ten or eleven dimensions, and now a small corner of physics is looking at theories in which, despite our being able to measure them with clocks and rulers, neither time nor space exist as fundmental dimensions. Only the "origin of all things" knows the answer.

It's in this way that perhaps a new theology is far away from what we need, the necessity being merely a reunderstanding of the old and its development into the new, which was Christianity itself.

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

It truly is amazing how as David puts it, the "matrix"... or some would reasonably argue... The Holy Spirit... works.

It began innocently enough, taking the information gleaned by a software robot and sorting it into this forum, listening to the (only) local Classical Music station, KING FM, (98.1 Mhz, centered on Seattle, Washington, USA, streaming on www.king.org) and heard an ad for a local organ concert :o :o :o   I continued to listen to the program in progress ( Office of Compline, Live from St. Mark's Cathedral [episcopal]) until the beginning of The Organ Loft... and continued to get things posted here and do some other random browsing of the World Wide Web, and got to thinking about this concert.

As it turned out, the web address in the ad proved to be a dead end, no information about any organ concert.   In summary,  Google had failed me >:(   At least the Alert did...  As it turns out, some really interesting organ concert related stuff had been, and continues to, "go on"... If one takes a "global perspective", right under my nose, nearly literally!  I did eventually find some relevant information... Believe it or not, an inaugural concert for a brand-new tracker action pipe organ built by Casavant-Freres :o ;D 8)

Note to self-- Check the Seattle AGO website from time to time, because Google doesn't for some unknown reason :o >:( ::) :-[

And it was there I discovered what is quoted below and thought it worthy of bringing it to the attention of the forum and figured this thread was as good as any ;)

Written by the Dean of the Seattle chapter of the American Guild for Organists...

October Dean's Message

"Thank you for your flexibility." This is a favorite motto around our choir. We don't let a mere plan stand in the way of a better idea. We routinely accommodate each other's wishes. We have grown to feel comfortable with variety in our Lutheran liturgy that would have been unbelievable a few decades back. Our new hymnal has ten settings of the liturgy to choose from. Or you can do something different.

We now know, as of a Nova program recently, that the Neanderthal died out because they were not able to adapt to changing climate and diet requirements, while the more agile homo sapiens (we) had evolved in a geologically active part of Africa, adapting to conditions as forests turned to savannahs and then to deserts, volcanoes, etc., learning to survive on different foods and in differing climates and to migrate as necessary. In short, we were built for change. Frightening, isn't it?

I think I remember a time, though I may have imagined it, when church stayed the same year in and year out. As a child, I repented to the same gloomy Kyrie every Sunday. The hymns all had four lines, four verses, four parts, and were in 4/4 time. The lessons changed, and the sermon was clearly the centerpiece, often filled with drama, punctuated by Pastor Larson's need to wipe his glasses. Over the door it said "Silence. This is none other than the house of God." It was silent, dark and solemn there. No kids ran in the aisles. There was no loud talking. Fear of God was a reality to me then. And there was the organ, a constant, comfortable friend. In my adult mind, as a dual-citizen of Lutheran and Episcopal persuasion, the epitome of a church service would probably be an evening mass in Salisbury Cathedral, a column of incense rising before the altar, and music by Howells and Tallis. One could participate by singing, or one could sit in awe and listen to the heavenly chorus, as through the open gates of Heaven. Have you ever felt that spiritual bliss which encompasses, but far surpasses the emotions or the senses? Do you still? Have you ever felt nostalgic over the loss of mystery, or of wonder in the everyday work of the church? Perhaps it is part of growing up, but I'd like to get it back.

Sometimes it seems to me that true worship has a tendency to slip into entertainment. In nearly fifty years in churches of various flavors, I have found this trend to be ubiquitous. I have for most of my life fought this and tried to prevent it. It seems like erosion, or decay. If worship is about God, and entertainment is about us, church over the years has become more and more about us, as it has become more user-friendly. What we like becomes the basis for more and more decisions. Participation in church is paramount. We are gently guided at each step, so that a stranger has no quarter but to be swept up in active participation.

About a quarter century ago, an excellent observer by the name of Neil Postman wrote a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death. Now that the process is nearly complete, I heartily recommend a review. He points out that the period which began with the Renaissance is now over. Print media have been replaced by myriad digital technologies resulting in a global change of perception far surpassing that which followed the Gutenberg revolution. The results are not yet in, but it is clear that sensory overload has increased as attention spans have diminished. How long can you sit in silence, without music, TV, radio, phone, or computer to amuse you? How many people can get through a church service without checking text messages? Has multi-tasking become a way of life? (I like to do Sudoku while listening to Thom Hartmann and doing the laundry. Very efficient.) For anyone as morbidly liberal as I am, I can tell you, it's embarrassing to be staking my position in defense of the Past—of Tradition. Even worse, who could take a stand against having a little fun in church—not me—no way! Is Jesus cool, or what? It ought to be the musician's motto: when in doubt, listen. I decided to try it.

I regret that I have a visceral reaction to praise band music; I really have to leave the room. So I do. But I have stopped resisting it. I am just a servant of the Lord. I will play what he gives me. The accordion has been a stepping stone from the ordinary to the sublime, the organ. The King of Instruments does demand humility in its approach. (But you have to admit, a milliondollar hymn-playing machine really is a bit elitist, isn't it?) Perhaps the accordion is also helping me step back down to the ordinary. While I may not attend worship the praise band way, I see the joy in the faces of those who find there inspiration and expression of their faith. Who are they? Spoiled babyboomers who refuse to grow up and embrace opera? Brain-addled youth who must constantly be thumbing out messages to their virtual friends? Can't they hear the beautiful counterpoint, so perfect and expressive? How can they ignore Buxtehude's impulsive recklessness? You mean the organ music is keeping people OUT of the church? (Note: Even God grew tired of Ricercari eventually, and stopped inspiring them almost completely after 1643.) I was recently asked to play more and brighter music on the Sundays we are using the organ. "Make it sound like something is going on in the church." I had been scaling back the organ repertoire, trying to approach the simplicity which for me makes place for reverence. But I can always make it more interesting, pick up the tempi a bit, use the mixture more, and stay away from pieces in minor unless they are loud! I can live it up! No matter the repertoire, playing still beats working, in my book. Late last week an amazing thought occurred to me: The Holy Spirit, seeing our busy minds so boggled by input overload, our addiction to change, and our constant need for amusement, has begun using entertainment itself—perhaps even Pop-culture—to reach through to us! Can it be? Entertaining liturgy? Is worship really just a form of theater, in which mortal humans act out the divine drama? (Ha! We're all theater organists!)

Poem of the day:

Where can I go then from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I climb up to heaven, you are there; If I make the grave my bed, you are there also. If I take the wings of the morning And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there your hand will lead me And your right hand hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, And the light around me turn to night," Darkness is not dark to you; The night is as bright as the day; Darkness and light to you are both alike.

(Psalm 139:7-12, NRSV,1989)

Thank you, Lord, for your flexibility.

David Locke, dean

Eric
KB7DQH