McDonald Road Church held a special dedication service on December 11, 2021 for the Rodgers organ that recently replaced our previous organ. We are very grateful that we can worship God through music each week.
Click here to watch the archived service.
Thank you to Jeff Lemon for sharing the following photos of the service:
About the Organ
December 11, 2021 – Today we present this Rodgers organ to be consecrated to the glory of our almighty God to be used in worship by our congregation and visitors. As we recognize music as a gift from God, we wish to also recognize the gift of knowledge and expertise of our organists who play for us each week in worship. We also recognize those unknown-to-us individuals who used their knowledge to build the organ we dedicate today.
Mozart called the organ the king of all instruments because of the immensity and variety of its sounds. Originally, organs produced sound through pipes that varied in length and diameter. Air was pushed through the pipes to produce the sound. Today, we have electronic, or sophisticated computerized organs designed to beautifully mimic a pipe organ. Did you know that the organ has pistons and couplers, a temperament, voices, and even velocity sensitivity, all designed to produce musical sounds?
Did you know that the phrase, “Pull out all the stops” originated with the organ? It meant that the organist was using every pipe available to create a powerful blast of unfiltered sound. The “stops” enable the organist to select specific combinations of sounds by turning them off or on. Organs have ranks, too. In a pipe organ, a rank is a row of pipes all of which make the same sound, but at different pitches. Organs are often described by the number of ranks they have regardless of whether they are pipe organs or electronic organs.
The organ we dedicate today is a Rodgers Masterpiece Signature 356B organ and is designed to serve the worship needs of larger churches. It has three manuals: the Great (middle), Choir (lower) and Swell (upper). It also has the stops of a Solo manual which can be coupled to any manual while the stops on that manual are used elsewhere via couplers. It has stops equivalent to 209 pipe ranks and a thousand preset combinations available. The use of USB flash drive storage allows each organist to have their “own organ.” Through MIDI connectivity to a Rodgers MX-200 (external digital tone generator) there are over 1,000 midi sounds and tones available on each of the manuals, supplementing the traditional organ sounds.
The 356B with pedalboard, adjustable bench, and eight speakers weighs over 1,000 pounds. There are two large sub-woofers (for the low pedal notes) and six speakers (two for each manual). The organ is basically a special purpose computer with a complex menu system covering a vast array of options. The learning curve is non-trivial.
Founded in 1958, the Rodgers Instruments company is one of the undisputed leaders in the American organ market. Rodgers became a subsidiary of Roland in 1988 resulting in industry-leading digital technological advances from the engineering teams of both Rodgers and Roland. The 356b is an American made organ, with distinct and universal American classic sound and clearly exemplifies the engineering prowess of these companies.
Dedication Service
Prelude:
Juanita Stinchfield: “Great is Thy Faithfulness” arranged by Tim Doran
Joy Boggess: “Priere a Notre-Dame” from Suite Gothique by Leon Boellmann
Marge Seifert: “Mary Did You Know?” by Mark Lowry & Buddy Green, arranged by Tim Doran.
Carol Harrison: “Silent Night”, arranged by Fred Bock
Family Sing:
• Hymn 122, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”
• Hymn 126, “In the Bleak Midwinter”
• Hymn 119, “Angels from the Realms of Glory”
Welcome: Pastor
*Baptism: Pastor Geoff Starr – Eduardo Fernandez
Introit: Choir
Hymn of Praise: Hymn 132, “O, Come, All Ye Faithful”
Prayer of Petition: Duane Lemon
Response to Prayer: Choir
Children’s Story: Carol Harrison
Offering: Verlyne Starr
Offertory: “Joy to the World”
Scripture: Verlyne Starr, 2 Chronicles 5:12-14
Worship in Music: Choir “O Little Town of Bethlehem” arran Dan Forrest
Worship in Music: Don Land “Advent Medley” by Eurydice V. Osterman
Sermon: Pastor Fuller “Joy to the World”
Dedicatory Music: “Festival First Noel” _- See Insert
Hymn of Response: Hymn # 32 “When in Our Music God is Glorified”
Postlude: Don Land, variations on “Ein Feste Burg” by Martin Luther
Brass Ensemble: Pablo Alvarez, Darin Bissell, Brian Dickinson, Ron Johnson, Jordan Lemon, Greg Lindquist, Reggie Thomas