“It can be used to play wonderful pieces of sacred music to provide an out-of-body experience in the spiritual realms,” McDonald opined.
Additionally, on third Sundays, visitors are welcomed to the parish to enjoy an organ concert and reception, which is as much an evangelization tool as it is for entertainment, McDonald noted. “It facilitates what the choir wants to do and accomplish,” he said.
Vogt added: “It sounds wonderful; it is a world-class organ. The people love it.”
John Bishop of Organ Clearing House of Newcastle, Maine, arranged its relocation. He was recommended by Vogt, who assisted as a volunteer on the project. Bishop noted that while moving “vintage organs,” as he prefers to call them, from one church to another can be difficult due to the placement of the organ within the building. Holy Angels’ transfer was easy because it sits on the floor of the church.
He also noted that while a repurposed organ can have a lower cost, as was the case with Holy Angels, oftentimes buyers seek one because they prefer the sound and quality of an older organ. His company, for example, is overseeing the installation of a 1916 Hook & Hastings organ in another Kansas Catholic parish, Church of the Good Shepherd in Shawnee. While mechanical parts may need replacement, organ pipes protected from damage can last indefinitely.
So while cost is often a factor, Bishop said, what churches most want are organs that “are musically satisfying, enhance worship, and will be mechanically durable.”
Vogt added that while Holy Angels was able to “get their organ for a song,” in the whole process of working with the parish committee on finding, purchasing, and installing it, “no one ever talked about bargains or savings. Their focus was on excellence and giving their best for the greater glory of God.”
Known for beautiful liturgies
In 2020, St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton, Virginia, dedicated its newly installed organ that was originally built in 2008 for Bloomfield Presbyterian Church in New Jersey. The 1,500-family parish is located in an Arlington/Washington, D.C., suburb and, according to Director of Music Ministry Mike Murphy, “has always been known for its beautiful liturgies and music.”
The parish had previously been served by a partially electronic, hybrid organ that “died” during Advent services in 2018. The parish leadership launched a committee to secure a new organ, with then-associate pastor Father Joseph Bergida insisting to members: “We do nothing but the most beautiful we can in the liturgy,” noting, for example, that artificial flowers are never to be placed on the altar.
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All parish groups were encouraged to be involved with the committee; a teen from the parish youth group, in fact, held a fundraiser for the organ “and got the kids energized about it.”
Multiple proposals were considered, and the committee decided the best option was the Bloomfield Presbyterian organ. Bloomfield is a colonial-era church dating back to the 18th century, and structural problems unrelated to the new organ forced the congregation to vacate the church. The organ had been in storage for eight years — Bloomfield’s leadership decided not to reinstall the organ but to shift to more contemporary music — and the Peragallo Pipe Organ Company, which had originally built the organ, suggested to St. Andrew’s that it would be ideal for their needs.
Murphy noted that the value of the organ was $1.5 million, but the parish was able purchase and install it at a more affordable cost of $600,000. The parish has been delighted with the results, he said: “It has enabled our parish to enjoy a greater variety of outstanding music, and not only is its sound beautiful, the organ itself is beautiful at which to look.”
Like at Holy Angels, St. Andrew’s hosts a monthly organ-centered concert series that welcomes gifted organists and is open to the community. Murphy considers it an evangelism tool as well, “as we generate interest in the parish and bring in people who otherwise wouldn’t come.”
Murphy continued: “Many parishes are rediscovering the treasures of our faith, including the use of the arts in the liturgy.”
He encouraged parish leaders considering purchasing an organ to get in contact with one or more of the many organ companies in the U.S., “as they’ll be aware of organs being displaced or in preservation or of parts of organs that can be used. They’ll know cost-effective ways of doing something beautiful for your church.”