I’m coming up on the eleventh anniversary of when I first became, in my mind, a church organist. So it seems appropriate I also have a fun, church-related update.

Some context…

It was in early October of 2014 that I began serving as pianist for Christ Church United Methodist-Wellesley. And though the pastor and music director were both perfectly content with me sticking to piano for Sunday services, they also casually mentioned that there happened to a pipe organ in the balcony and I was welcome to give it a try. I didn’t have much else going on at the time, so I did, very enthusiastically, give it a try, and was incorporating organ into services by the end of the month.

That position only lasted a couple of years, but I was back on the bench in pretty short order—this time, for the First United Methodist Church right here in Stoughton. In fact, this coming Easter will mark eight years with this congregation, which is absolutely wild. At some point, I should write more about the experience…

Recently, FUMC Stoughton entered into an exciting, new arrangement with two other congregations to create the South Shore Cooperative Parish. We’re still figuring out what being a “cooperative parish” looks like, but one new development (and the fun update I referred to earlier) is that twice a month—the first and third Sundays, to be precise—I’ll be playing for the 9:30 service at Quincy Community UMC before rushing back to Stoughton for our service at eleven.

And I know this makes me a giant nerd, but the thing I am most excited about… is the pistons!

The only other organs I’ve worked with regularly, as you can see above, are old pipe organs that pre-date the technology, so this is the first time I get to have an organ to myself where I can play around with pre-set registrations. It’s like a getting a brand new toy, but two months before Christmas! I’m going to have a lot of fun with this one, I think—stay tuned.