All Saints and Reformation Sundays

We had such a fabulous music selection on Reformation Sunday—choir, organ, brass.  I don’t know how these things are planned, if there is a worship committee or it’s the choir director Brian and organist Allan or the pastors, but it all worked together.  The prelude was a smashing organ-Trumpet piece called  Chorale with Interludes by Charles Callahan. https://www.morningstarmusic.com/composers/c/callahan 

Our musicians sit behind the congregation in the balcony, so I always have to turn around if I want to see them.  Anyway, as the prelude came to a glorious end, and the trumpet stopped, one pipe on the organ wouldn’t—a very low register with a rumble you could hear a few blocks away.  It must be every performer’s nightmare.  Dave Mann was the pastor who was leading the service (senior pastor Steve Turnbull gave the sermon), and he is also an organist, so he stood there and smiled and waited, but it got louder and louder and you could hear someone rustling around trying to shut down the organ.  So he decided to just go ahead with the Confession and Forgiveness, which had to be shouted. Soon the organ noise quieted down as it was shut off (?).  But an elaborate Call to Worship was planned, and we were not only reading scripture, but were supposed to sing all 4 verses of “A Mighty Fortress” interspersed with scripture, and the organ was needed for that.  So after each verse, the loud malfunctioning pipe would continue, and the lead pastor had to shout over it. Finally, at the end of that section, we heard the maverick pipe sort of quietly slink away.

During coffee time after the service in the narthex I asked one of the choir members how it was fixed and she said someone got a ladder and went up inside the pipes, and stuck in something to stop it.  I’m sure a repairman will be called.  The organ had a huge refurbishment in 2005, thousands and thousands of dollars which I think a donor paid for because it was about 30 years old, and I’m sure general maintenance is  expensive.  http://churchacronym.blogspot.com/2005/05/pentecost-concert-our-choir-presented.html

Today November 1 is All Saints Day, from which we get the festive contraction Halloween, for All Hallow’s Eve. So this coming Sunday is All Saints Sunday.  It too is a lovely service, but more sober.  The names of the congregants who have died since last October 31 are read from the pulpit. Since we are gone in the summer, sometimes I’m not aware of the death.  Then during communion the names of our own remembered friends and relatives are read from cards we had filled out.  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus . . ." Hebrews 12:1

"Most Lutheran churches use the first Sunday in November to remember all the saints in the Church of Christ Jesus, especially those members and friends of the local congregation who have been called to Heaven in the previous year.

The custom of commemorating all the martyrs of the Church on a single day goes back at least to the third century. All Saints' Day celebrates not only the martyrs and saints, but all the people of God, living and dead, who together form the mystical body of Christ.

In Europe, All Saints' Day is also called All Hallow's Day ('hallowed' means 'sanctified' or 'holy'). October 31st, the evening before All Saint's Day is named All Hallow's Eve, which was contracted to Halloween." (Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Ypsilanti, MI)

The gay organ majors at Oberlin

Gay alumni of Oberlin (small college in Ohio) have documentation of their history on the internet.  One writer decries always presenting gay men as victims, when in fact he thinks they are quite wonderful  and creative and supportive (in his introduction to this  history of the organ majors of 50 years ago). Here's how they carved out a special dorm space.

"Nearly all the organ majors were gay men, their presence could not be denied, by the school or to each other. It wasn't calculated at all, it simply was. Gay men following their passion for music arrived to discover that others were more like themselves than they could ever have dreamed. How wonderful is that? Starting in the early '50s, someone whose name is lost to history had the brilliant idea for the organ majors to take over the top floor (consisting of 10 or 12 rooms, some double, some triple) of a dormitory named Burton Hall. And so they did. If you have ever lived in a dorm at college you know this took considerable forethought and planning, applying for particular rooms a year in advance. Covert and subversive, it was a sacred trust, no one admitted to what was going on and would deny it if questioned. The administration was mute. It remains unclear whether the scheme was unknown or best unacknowledged. The organ majors of Oberlin did hold some esteem and clout. They were talented and it is said what they lacked in technical skills was far exceeded by the emotion they could find in a seemingly neutral piece of music. There is much evidence that some highly placed, closeted professors knew well what was going on and did what they could to deflect and gloss over rumblings from the administration or gossip."

 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/9/4/1013446/-