When I was a teenager I had the privilege of hearing one of the greatest private concerts ever given. The place was "Calvary Temple" in Seattle. Calvary was at that time a huge Church in my denomination, and it was exciting to be given a private tour by my former pastor from Wallace, who was as an accomplished pianist and organist as you would ever want to hear.Calvary had a huge pipe organ, and the rooms where the pipes were was where I was when my former pastor decided to give us the treat of a lifetime. He had spent many years arranging Handel's Messiah for the piano, and even though i had heard him play the Hallelujah Chorus many times on the piano, I was not ready for what I was about to hear. My former Pastor was no longer in the pipe room. All of a sudden, a sound that could only be described as "other world" filled the pipe room. It came cascading down on us, overwhelming the senses, our emotions unchecked as tears streamed down our faces. He was playing the Hallelujah Chorus on the pipe organ, and there we were, in the pipe rooms. I can never describe the sensation, the chill, the spiritual uplift, the goose-bumps. When it was done, my father, who was there with me, turned to me and said" that is a close as we will ever be to heaven on this earth."
My Pastor has long gone on , and as far as I know there are no recordings of his arrangements, but everytime I hear the Messiah performed, I think of that experience in the pipe room of that grand old church in Seattle.
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I had always thought that there was some type of Divine order to this chaos. I always wanted to believe that everything happened for a purpo...
3 comments:
Beautiful.
This is beautiful.......... my only recollection of church as a child was carrying the girl guide flagstaff one Sunday on some 'scouting' service and forgetting to stop half way down the aisle and lowering the flagstaff, so continuing to walk and the top of the staff hitting the above half level of the church where the organist was sitting and the whole flagstaff crashing down into the pew and almost knocking the vicar for six LOL
my only other time was when I nicked one of the big white church candles from out the back room when I was surpose to be polishing the silver with the vicars daughter (who was my friend) so we could get our community service badge LMFAO....... oh hush she told me to nick it, and a vicars daughter at that, we used it to wax the big metal slide in the park so one slid down so fast ya shot off the end..... for weeks and weeks after I thought I would get struck by lightning for nicking the church candle.....
god help me, there is no hope for me lol no wonder he dont want me lmfao
x
Ineed, SVG, it was a beautiful experience that I shall never forget.
MT-my oh my, you were a little pixie, weren't you?
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