Blessed Sacrament Organ Project
By the grace of God and the generosity of many in our parish we have reached the fundraising goal for the installation of the Ruth and Paul Manz Organ!
We have begun work on the loft itself, so that it can support the 9-ton organ. This work began in early April and will take approximately 15 weeks. This means that, if everything goes as planned, the organ itself will be installed in July. We thank everyone for your financial support of this project and for your prayers.
The Blessed Sacrament Food Program is still thriving every Sunday even with the pews temporarily in the Parish Hall.
The 112-year-old Church of the Blessed Sacrament has never seen the installation of a permanent pipe organ . . . until now.
With a long history of music and liturgical excellence, and emerging from COVID-19 pandemic restriction, a renewed vision for the music department was envisioned. Critical to this new vision, which seeks to engage substantially with volunteer singers of all ages, is the installation of a substantial, fully equipped pipe organ. Though the church has housed two organs for many decades, they are both too small to serve their purpose, and in the case of one, have become mechanically unreliable.
Working collaboratively, the staff, the friars, an independent third-party consultant, and a group of volunteers have proposed a two-phase plan to both support our already bourgeoning music program and plan for its future expansion. This plan also completes the major architectural vision for our church to house magnificent instruments. The first phase – to install a neo-classical organ in the loft and commission the building of a small portable organ for use wherever needed – is well underway, with an appropriate instrument found, tested, and purchased with existing funds, and a builder for the small organ selected. The second phase – to install a larger organ in the chancel chambers – will be triggered by agreed upon metrics for performance growth, likely in the next 10-20 years.
