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BY CARRIE MADREN
UMCONNECTION CORRESPONDENT

When Capitol Hill UMC's 1939 Whitelegg Möller pipe organ - the equivalent of a Stradivarius violin - began a slow deterioration, members decided something had to be done to save the historic instrument. In the process, the D.C. congregation found themselves on an incredible journey of faith.

Members have always known the rare treasure present at their Sunday services.

"The lineage of the builders and their mentors goes back to Charles Wesley and the heart of Methodism," said Kevin Anderson, long-time church leader and choir member.

"The builder (Richard Whitelegg) who voiced the organ had been one of the great late 19th century organ builders in the world." Whitelegg apprenticed as an organ builder in England for Henry Willis & Sons, and voiced the organ in Westminster Cathedral.

Now Capitol Hill's organ is one of the few near-original Whitelegg organs still in existence.
Capitol Hill UMC purchased the pipe organ in 1961 from the National Presbyterian Church. The Opus 6385 organ - with pipes as small as drinking straws and as large as 16-foot-long telephone poles - has been central to worship at Capitol Hill.

"For a lot of people, organ and choir are a real pathway to feeling the presence of God in worship," Anderson said. Singing with the organ unites people and voices together as followers of Christ - stronger as a body than as individuals.

But when the pipe organ approached age 60 about a decade ago, things started to fall apart. Sometimes a note would get stuck and keep playing, the console stopped working properly and there were ranks of pipes that ceased to sound.

"Organs are living, breathing things made of wood and leather and mechanical parts, and it needed work," Anderson said. So members decided to make a commitment to being good stewards.

To do that, they needed to raise money for the several-hundred-thousand-dollar restoration, a daunting proposition for a church that had some 60 regular worshippers only five years ago.

The church realized if they didn't start work soon, they would lose their musical treasure forever, said the Rev. Alisa Lasater. Pipes would deteriorate beyond repair.

Before the restoration, the organ committee realized that even with $60,000 already raised, they'd have to acquire debt, on faith that the money would be raised later.

"It was a real leap of faith, to get work started without being certain of how or when we would raise the money," Anderson said. But leap they did.

The restoration itself took two years of painstaking, fine-tuning work. "There was one stop that I haven't been able to use in nine years, and the artisans came in to work, just on one stop, for four days," said organist Jon Kalbfleisch, a Tony award-winning musician who began learning pipe organ in high school, after mastering piano.

With the new system, an organist can change stops instantly, via electronic and computerized means instead of the old mechanized structure. The original work that the builder did, however, remains the same, Kalbfleisch explained. The instrument has been restored to what he and experts believe the organ would have sounded like had it been voiced for Capitol Hill's sanctuary.

Part of the restoration included going back in time. In 1939, Kalbfleisch said, organs were designed to replicate the sound of the orchestra. So Capitol Hill's organ has the capability to sound like an English horn, oboe and French horn. It was also built with a harp stop, which was removed in the 1960s, because it wasn't in fashion anymore and there wasn't space; now the harp stop is restored as it was.

As the restoration work went on, the now 150-member church rallied behind a capital campaign to raise $525,000 that included $350,000 for the organ and the rest for other core ministries. The immense sum intimidated some, but with the help of a professional consultant, the church embarked on a journey of prayer, faith and sacrifice. Central to the campaign was focusing the congregation's vision: to be the heart of God in their community.

Every week, the congregation sang a portion of "This is My Story, This is My Song," and a sermon series on offerings culminated last spring with a time to lay down a commitment on the alter to support the campaign.

In the process, "folks became vulnerable as they shared this stewardship journey," Lasater said. "We realized that through faith we could do something together as a corporate body that we couldn't do on our own."

The church exceeded its goal, raising $585,000 in pledges over the next three years, with the largest single pledge at $40,000. Members got extra jobs, re-mortgaged homes and found other ways to make sacrifices for stewardship, which has brought the congregation closer together.

Now that rich pipe organ music is once again resounding in the sanctuary, the church is growing its outreach ministries, including serving un-housed neighbors in their community.

"It was our call to stewardship," said Anderson, "that led us to grow in faith and fellowship as a church."

Make the Connection:
Hear the free Musical Mondays Concert Series at Capitol Hill UMC. Master musicians include Eric Plutz, University Organist at Princeton, who plays Jan, 4, 2010; David Kim, the Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, leads a string quartet and others on March 29.. The church is at 421 Seward Square, SE (5th and Pennsylvania Ave., SE), Washington, DC 20003. For more information, call 202-546-1000 or visit www.chumc.net.