"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing." (Psalm 100:1-2)

Serving the Streetsville and Meadowvale communities since 1836.

Phoenix Organ Installation Diary at Streetsville United

At a special congregational meeting held December 15, 2002 the congregation of Streetsville United Church approved the purchase and installation of a Phoenix PD-351 Digital Organ to replace its current Keates Pipe Organ with some components dating back to 1920. This diary will attempt to log the progress of the organ's construction and installation during the spring of 2003.

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Gradual Progress

Yesterday (Wednesday) Gary completed the speaker shelves in the pipe chamber, Peter rewired the organ pit and environs (for instance, we needed some outlets for our bands) while Rob and Bernie built the supporting framework for the new organ pit floor. You will notice exposed (1876) brickwork on the wall at the previous location of the "Clarkson Gate"; that gate will be reinstalled in the new south wall of the choir loft/organ pit. Speaking of 1876 construction we have uncovered the original lathe and plaster ceiling of Heritage Hall and found several square hand-forged square nails left as construction debris.

The recent inclement weather over an extended period of time caused delivery delays for one component of the organ; we have rescheduled its arrival to next Tuesday while the speakers will be installed and wired this Friday. This past Tuesday Phoenix performed the complete installation of a similar organ at a church east of Toronto. Apparently near the end of the day, the minister asked Don to play a hymn, passed out hymn books to about 15 or 20 congregants who were present and away they went. The minister wanted a preview of what it would sound like at its first service this Sunday; his subsequent comment was to the effect that this organ will enhance the singing amongst his congregation; this mirrors a comment made by a minister at an installation we visited when evaluating organs. Get ready to sing, folks!

Jim Anderson of Phoenix will be the guest speaker at our monthly Men's Club meeting Friday morning. I am sure he will have some interesting anecdotes to relate.

Finally in closing, the purpose of this diary was to allow our members to continue to be informed on a daily basis due to the latent enthusiasm I had been sensing around the church. From comments I have heard over the past few days, we are achieving this objective; I am constantly amazed at the number of people who come up to me and are following this diary. As a secondary objective I hope its record can help other congregations anticipate and resolve issues that may arise in the acquisition of a new organ (of any type); in our original investigations we found a significant dearth of independent information to assist us with our acquisition decision.
Posted 4/10/2003 07:00:00 a.m. by Jim Courtney