Organs I have played, part 1

Last Christmas my mom gave me a device to scan old slides into digital images. I have been plugging away with the few boxes of slides I have over the past few months. I have re-found some neat pictures of organs I have played. I thought I would start a series of posts on them.

In 1987 or 1988 I went with a small group of ministerial colleagues to Jamaica. This was back in the days when I was training for and seeking ordination in the United Methdist Church. This trip was put together for the participants to see the work being done by Methodists in Jamaica, and to see how we pastors might involve our congregations with that work, as mission endeavors. The idea was that we would get familiar with the work being done, identify needs and motivate our congregations to get involved. We spent a week or so on the north shore of Jamaica, between Montego Bay where we flew into and Ocho Rios the next larger town on the coast. I remember very few details, except that we were looking at construction work going on and the education program, specifically summer vacation Bible school, of the Methodist community in the area we were in. St Ann's Bay is a north shore town with a small circuit of Methodist congregations, the next to last image is the largest church in the circuit in St Ann's Bay, and it was this organ that I encountered. I didn't wind up with a picture of myself at the console, though I did play it. The last picture is one from a group from Kansas that has a pretty strong (it seems), on-going relationship with the Methodists in this area.

 

You can learn a bit about the Methodist Church in Jamaica here. And learn about Church of the Resurrection's work in Jamaica here. The organ was built by R. Spurden Rutt of London. According to sources he delivered about 20 instruments to Jamaica. The present instrument is not in the British Institute of Organ Studies' National Pipe Organ Register, but I did find this listing of Rutt's corporate history.