JOHNSON CREEK — 
St. Mary Magdalene Church in Johnson Creek, part of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish, is installing a new vintage pipe organ.

Need for a change

The church previously had an electronic organ that was, by parish music director Tyler Pimm’s approximation, around 40 to 50 years old. 

“I ask anybody, do you have 40, 50 year old pieces of electronics sitting around in your house? And the answer is most likely no, not just because they’ve become functionally obsolete but because they don’t work anymore, right? So this thing was starting to fail. It was starting to make terrible noises through the speakers, and some stops weren’t working. It was becoming difficult for the various organists that we have playing it, to work with.”

The situation being what it was, Fr. Tim Renz, pastor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish, mentioned the need at Mass one Sunday.

An anonymous donor approached Father Renz after Mass and generously offered to fund the project in its entirety. 

‘As cool as it gets’

In their hunt for a new organ, the parish found a winner: A Casavant Frères organ built in 1921.

According to Pimm, the vintage organ is “as cool as it gets. I mean it’s like driving a classic car.”

A true pipe organ, rather than electronic, the organ had been located since 1921 in its original home, a Protestant church in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The organ is historic and has all the original pipework and casework, but it was also rebuilt in the 1990s, and some of the controls were modernized, so “it’s kind of like the best of both worlds.”

Markus Organs, run by Mark Pichowicz and headquartered in Winchester, Va., has been hired by the parish to do the installation. 

“I trusted him to do the work,” said Pimm. “He really does want to see these organs be re-homed.”

In this case, the installation included driving up to Canada to pick up the organ, dismantling it, hauling it back to Johnson Creek, and then assembling it in its new home.

Volunteers — and a materials lift — assisted with the labor of unloading the truck.

“Anytime you’re re-homing a used organ . . . there’s always some problem-solving that needs to take place.”

For instance, a platform was built to set up the new organ well in the St. Mary Magdalene choir loft, and the organ needed a couple of new parts. Overall, “it’s really going smoothly,” said Pimm.

Blessing and concert

Pimm is excited for the organ to begin doing its work. 

“It’s going to do a much better job of supporting congregational singing.”

He’s happy that the church has a true pipe organ now. 

“Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from Vatican II, said that the pipe organ was to be held in high esteem [cf. para. 120]. . . It’s the primary instrument we use for our worship, apart from the human voice, which is the most important . . . The pipe organ does the best at supporting and replicating the human voice.”

Pimm believes that most people “if they got to experience an electronic organ and a pipe organ side by side in the same room . . . they would notice how overwhelmingly different a pipe organ is.”

For those eager to hear the new organ, an opportunity is upcoming.

The new organ will be blessed by Father Renz, followed by a concert, on Friday, Sept. 11, starting at 7 p.m., at St. Mary Magdalene Church, 242 Williams St., Johnson Creek. 

Hymns will be sung, and several organists will perform on the new organ — including Pimm himself, other parish organists, and Alex Hodgkinson, new diocesan director of sacred music.