(Click on Images to Enlarge)

Photo 1. View of the front of the church. The pipe chamber is behind the cross.

Photo 2. A typical workday in the assembly room with a great deal going on.

Photo 3. More wiring, done by Jim S. here with Carl D. looking on.

Photo 4. Jim R. continues the wiring on the switchstack.

Photo 5. Roger wires the celeste chest.

Photo 6. Chuck and Jay were “buried” in console work for hours.

Photo 7. Chuck continues the console wiring.

Photo 8. Roger, Jim S. and Joanne wired the main Swell chest, and Charlie here confirms the fact that they had done a tremendous job.

Photo 9. Carl P. works on the 16’ Lieblich-Gedeckt pipes.

Photo 10. Halie and Joanne wash off decades of grime from the metal pipes.

Photo 11. Ben undertook a number of different tasks, and here he prepares a special adaptor for the wind to go to the Celeste chest.

Photo 12. Bart undertakes one of the more complicated tasks--preparing the stop tablet switches for the new electronic system.

Photo 13. Jay on a ladder secures the trumpets using new twill tape.

Photo 14. Overall view of the organ at this point in time with the console on the far left.

Photo 15. View of the organ from the console with the switch stack and the electronic boards seen in the foreground.

Major Progress on Organ for Hope Presbyterian Church

11/22/19

Through contacts made by Ray Bothel in 2017, the Pipe Organ Foundation connected with the relatively new Hope Presbyterian Church. The church had recently moved to a building in northern Bellevue, Washington, and it was a small but growing congregation. It was committed to traditional worship, and it wished for a pipe organ which would replace the electronic instrument which had been in the building for more than 30 years.

The Rev. Dr. Dan McManigal is the Pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church. Negotiations between the church and the Foundation for a pipe organ began in the fall of 2017. The church formed an Organ Committee in December of that year which was chaired by James Sherwin. On January 21, 2018, the church and the Foundation signed an agreement to have a custom rebuilt pipe organ installed in the building at very low cost to the church.

After completing its ongoing projects, the Foundation began the organ for Hope Presbyterian in September, 2019. A 9 rank instrument was planned for the organ chamber behind the front wall of the sanctuary. The first photo shows that wall, and one can see the fabric-covered openings into the pipe chamber on either side of the cross.

It was found to be beneficial to use the console of the electronic organ which had been in the church since about 1983. An Artisan electronic driving system was selected for the organ, with a significant number of Artisan parts having been contributed to the Foundation by Thomas Blackwell and the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. Gratitude is expressed to Mark Andersen and Red Carlson of Artisan Instruments for their considerable assistance with this project.

At the time of this report, the Swell division of the organ was all but done, and this includes five of the nine ranks of pipes planned for the complete organ. These five ranks are 16’ Lieblich-Gedeckt, 8’ Salicional, 8’ Voix Celeste (t.c.), 4’ Principal, and 8’ Trumpet. In addition, in the console there has been major progress on the electronics and wiring, and the wiring of the switchstack is all but complete.

From September to November, 2019, 14 volunteers contributed more than 800 hours of time to make this organ a reality. The attached pictures show many of the volunteers at work as the project progressed.

In January, 2020, work on the remaining parts of the organ will resume. Work will begin at the church in order to prepare the organ chamber for installation when the instrument is completed. It is the objective of the Foundation to install this organ during the first half of 2020.