08/23/2026
For pipe organ lovers and those who know the feeling of longing, waiting, and fulfillment. (Also references our anthem this morning.)
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O God Beyond All Praising
Jason Saugey, Director of Music and Worship Ministries
After almost three months without the organ, as extensive repairs were undertaken in the sanctuary, last Monday, I unwrapped the console from its layers of protective plastic and cardboard. When the scaffolding was dismantled, workers had already uncovered the pipe facade, the signature facade beloved by the congregation for generations and admired by visitors to the church for decades. These gold pipes have looked out into the nave from the beginning, belonging to the original Pilcher instrument that first led the congregation in song and accompanied the choir. Now, they are the principal pipes of the pedal division. They along with the other ranks had been silent all this time, since I lifted the final chord of the Grayston Ives Intrada on Trinity Sunday, the last day of May.
Console exposed at last, I switched on the blower. And nothing. No wind, no console lights. Just silence. There was an issue with an electrical circuit, it turned out. An electrician was called and called again. The organ waited. I waited. The congregation waited, having worked long hours through the week cleaning and readying not only for the first Sunday back in our home, but also to celebrate a wedding on Saturday. And now, potentially, without the church's grand and majestic voice.
Finally today, hours before the wedding rehearsal, an electrician arrived to replace the breakers. I powered up the blower, and discovered the pedal 16' Subbass was ciphering on the low A-flat. Retribution no doubt for having to sit silently for so long. I powered down the wind, hoping the mechanism would release. No luck. I bounced the key. Still no luck. In frustration, I knelt down at the pedal board and bounced the key again with my palm...and, suddenly, it released, along with my panic. Boldly, I pulled the 16' Subbass and played the A-flat. It behaved without getting stuck. I checked the reeds: remarkabley in tune — at least with themselves. Systematically I improvised from the softest sounds, adding all the choruses and finally the reeds, culminating on the roaring tutti. The entire instrument had weathered the storm and was ready for praise. As the organ swelled, the workers in the room stopped what they were doing and began to applaud this marvelous king of instruments. The church arrayed anew had reclaimed her singular voice.
The groom had specifically requested the tune Thaxted to be played as his mother and the mother of the bride are seated. It is the famous central melody from Gustav Holst's Jupiter, in his orchestral tone poem cycle The Planets. It was later transformed into a hymn tune which sets the text "O God Beyond All Praising".
Having ascertained all was in order, I had last-minute work to do, namely to register the wedding music list ahead of this evening's rehearsal. Thaxted, in the Charles Callahan setting, was first on the docket. I don't play it as written. I prefer to build it throughout and end it big and broad. Once all combinations were in place, I started from the beginning, thinking as I went, on the text of the hymn:
"O God beyond all praising,
we worship you today
and sing the love amazing
that songs cannot repay;
for we can only wonder
at every gift you send,
at blessings without number
and mercies without end:
we lift our hearts before you
and wait upon your word,
we honor and adore you,
our great and mighty Lord.
Then hear, O gracious Savior,
accept the love we bring,
that we who know your favor
may serve you as our king;
and whether our tomorrows
be filled with good or ill,
we'II triumph through our sorrows
and rise to bless you still:
to marvel at your beauty
and glory in your ways,
and make a joyful duty
our sacrifice of praise."
John Dryden in his Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day writes: "But Oh, what art can teach, what human voice can reach the sacred organ's praise?" He captures an indisputable truth in those words. And his point was never clearer than today, as I sat in tears at the console of this marvelous instrument.
The Hofmann-Nichols/Simpson organ will sound for the first time again on Sunday morning at 8:30 and then with full choir at 11. The day's prelude will be this same Thaxted setting, and the postlude will be Callahan's stately arrangement of Jerusalem.
This afternoon I couldn't help but think of the Israelites as they returned to the temple from captivity in Babylon, the joy they must have felt once all was restored and put in right order. The choir will sing W. H. Harris's Holy is the true light as our introit, welcoming us home to worship in the beauty of holiness. Please plan to attend at either 8:30 or 11:00 on this festival day!
