By the time you read this the organ console will have been transported to Atlanta, Georgia where it will be rebuilt and fitted with an organ control system that will increase the versatility of the instrument. The MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) capability being installed provides a keyboardist with multiple, simultaneous instrumental sounds from which to choose.
In addition the organ will have a built-in play/record sequencer which will allow certain pieces to be recorded beforehand and used as an accompaniment to the choir. The Director of Music will be able to conduct his/her ensemble and have the accompaniment being played back in real time. 
A new combination action system serves as a sort of hard drive for the organist to save registrations. Registrations, for those of you who might not understand the lingo, are any given number of stops used at once to produce a desired sound. A registration is stored to a piston, which an organist recalls by pushing a single piston.
While the pipe organ has a rich 5000 year history, it has gone through a multitude of changes and were not readily accepted by the medieval church until the 13th century. The great 20th composer Igor Stravinsky once called the pipe organ the monster that never breathed. Unlike other acoustic keyboard instruments, whose sounds start to decay after a key is pressed, the organ pipe will continue to sound/speak until the key is released. This sonority of sounds that the organ prod
uces has been the single instrument which has helped congregational singing over the years. Having some stops that imitate the voice, the organ provides the support that singers need.
The congregation should be aware of the treasure which we have residing in two chambers contains one of the finest instruments in Chesterfield County. When Casavant Freres was contacted about building an instrument for FUMC, they did not go to the store shelf and pull pip
es and other equipment. Casavant Freres Opus 34 was conceived by a consultant and tonal director who brought together plans to build an instrument that was tailored to our needs and sympathetic to the room. It is an instrument that is capable of presenting 500+ years of organ literature. The dedication of Jimmy Crawford, Salley Shumpert, Helen McMeekin, Vallie Lowe and many other individuals brought to Cheraw an organ at the cost of $155,000 in 1981, which will serve the church for many generations to come. A pipe organ of this size today would cost over 1.5 million dollars to build.
While the organ console is out, we will be using the fine Kawai Grand Piano as our primary worship instrument. I am requesting that you all submit a list of gospel songs or hymns that you would like to sing during the two months that the organ will be undergoing its retrofit.
Jon