Music at St John’s & Our Organ

We feel that music is an integral part of the church experience.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16

How do we provide music at St John’s?

At St. John’s, we encourage you to worship God by joining us in singing hymns and psalms, regardless of your musical ability.

The main instruments we use for worship are the organ and the voice. We use the organ as a musical background to prepare our hearts and minds for prayer and worship and to lead congregational singing.

We do not use a praise band here because it does not match our style of worship.

Our musical past: The 1924 Wangerin Organ

St. John’s procured a 1924 Wangerin pipe organ, opus 421, from the Crystal Theater in Burlington circa 1928. To accommodate the organ, the church built the organ loft.

The organ had two manuals, keyboards, and four sets of pipes or ranks.

The organ ranks included:

• Stopped flute 16′ – 2′
• Diapason 8′ – 4′
• Viol d’ Orchestra, 8′ – 4′
• Vox Humana 8′
• A metal bar harp.

The organ was unified and had around 21 stop keys. Because of the unification, there were no couplers. The organ was set up like a theater organ; the “great” or solo manual was on top where a typical swell division goes, and the lower manual was the accompaniment division.

The significant difference between the two keyboards was that the solo had a 16′ flute and a 2 2/3′ stop that the accompaniment did not.

The Wangerin organ served the church well for many years, but it was limiting.

So, in the early 2000s, the church discussed expanding the organ with its vintage pipework. The process took too long for some organ committee members, and the organ committee decided to go in a different direction. That leads us to the current Allen Organ going solo with no pipes.

Our current organ

2004, St. John’s acquired a new Allen AP-40 to supplement the Wangerin. Regrettably, this aspect of the process occurred due to a misunderstanding. The Allen alone is more than sufficient to fulfill the requirements; however, unfortunately, the Wangerin was never integrated into the organ.

Our Allen Organ adds a lot of music to our worship services because of the organ voices offered by this beautiful instrument. The organ provides diverse tonal sounds, from quiet and lush tones to a loud fanfare-style trumpet.

Our Allen allows St. John the Divine to enjoy more styles of music in worship and with more support!

We offer a variety of music, from traditional hymns to contemplative music featuring clarinet and flute stops to lively, joyful melodies with the grand trumpet.

Our current organist

Kevin P. Monteith is our current organist and has provided us with music since 1995.

AP-40 Allen’s stop list (2004)

Other musical instruments: Our Piano

Besides the organ, we also have a piano donated to the church by the Stevenson family in 2000. We have used the piano for many years to lead our 10 a.m. service, but now it plays a secondary role.