Tarpon Presbyterian church acquires pipe organ

Every time parishioners attending services at the Church on the Bayou hear the sound of their newly dedicated pipe organ they know their prayers have been answered.

"It sounds beautiful, just amazing," said Don Finley, a former reporter who does publicity for the church.

For several decades the 124-year-old Presbyterian Church USA congregation at 409 Whitcomb Blvd. used an electronic organ. Everyone at the church was happy to be able to get this grand pipe organ valued, at $250,000, for free, Finely said.

"We could never afford to pay for its actual value," he said.

The musical prayers of the 125-member Church on the Bayou congregation were answered when Rio Vista Presbyterian Church, in St. Petersburg, closed its doors and offered the organ to any church that wanted it.

Church on the Bayou parishioners had to pay about $40,000 to transport the organ - including the pipes, wind chests and the console containing keyboards and the stops used to select the various pipe ranks - from one end of the county to the other. Organ pipes can be damaged or knocked badly out of tune if not carefully transported.

In addition, the front of the sanctuary had to be remodeled to accommodate the instrument's majestic pipes. Some of the organ's 979 pipes, some made from metal, others from wood, are visible during services. The majority, however, are housed in two rooms off the sanctuary.

The money to pay for the move and alterations, which is being repaid, came from the congregation's endowment fund.

Finley, the Rev. Carl vom Eigen, the church's pastor, and other church leaders hope the organ will attract more people to services. The church may hold two or three organ concerts a year.

During a recent dedication ceremony it was nice to see all the new faces or people who came to the church to hear the organ, Finley said. "The church was filled" with an estimated 200 people, he said.

The organ's dedication concert featured Professor David Clark Isele, organist, composer-in-residence and director of choral and vocal activities at the University of Tampa. He was joined by Libor Ondras, assistant professor and director of the UT Orchestra, on violin, and Ryan Nelson, professor of trumpet at Florida College in Temple Terrace and Southeastern University in Lakeland and a member of the Tampa Brass Quintet.

Finley said there are many people who enjoy organ music. He hopes they will attend services and planned organ concerts.

The organ was constructed in 1961 by the Wicks Organ Co. in Highland, Ill., for St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Lakeland. It was moved to Rio Vista in 2003, where it was regularly played.

Vom Eigen, pastor of the church for the last decade, had pipe organs played in other churches he has led. At one church he even helped install an organ.

Acquiring the pipe organ was a wonderful opportunity for the church, vom Eigen said. The music it creates is the difference between listening to recorded music and a living, breathing instrument that produces rich tones and melodies.

What is now known as the Presbyterian Church on the Bayou traces its roots back to 1886, when the sanctuary of the First Presbyterian Church of Tarpon Springs was in a wooden building on Tarpon Avenue. The congregation later relocated to the corner of Grand Boulevard and West Center Street, where it remained until the late 1960s, when the congregation moved to its present location on Whitcomb Bayou.

The pastor said everyone is invited to attend Sunday services at 10:30 a.m. and hear the organ in all its majesty.