Today I'm celebrating the beginning of my fifth year as a piporg-l
subscriber
by getting back to the computer following several weeks of recuperation
from
surgery and the worst snowstorm in 80 years, which immobilized this
community
for much of the Christmas season.
 
However, I've caught up by scrolling through the archives, and I was
very
disturbed to see Ingrid being pilloried in a very personal fashion for
posting the latest chapter in the saga of her church in Colorado.
 
I consider her postings very relevant to the concerns of this list, and
consistent with the contributors' guidelines -- including the criterion
of
general interest.  However, personal attacks, particularly those that
cast
doubt on the professional competence of another list member, are clearly
NOT.
 
To those of you who've become impatient with these posts because you
teach in a college with half a dozen three-manual trackers or work in a
parish with supportive clergy and a stratospherically exquisite liturgy,
and
therefore are relatively well-insulated against the trend Ingrid
documents:
think again.  Ignorance, apathy and hostility to the organ from within
the
church are certainly not new, but it's interesting and worthwhile to see
it
documented in this way.  If you had the opportunity to read a very
emotional, firsthand account of the Cromwell period by an English parish
organist, would you dismiss it as mere kvetching?  Do they have to melt
down
Ingrid's pipes or move them into a pizza parlor before her troubles
really
qualify for a hearing?
 
For those of you who live outside the U.S. (as I do) -- you should be
interested in a journeyman's view of what's going on in the most
affluent
country (and one of the most religious) in the world -- and therefore,
in
this century, the one best equipped to support organ building and organ-
playing.
 
Happy New Year everyone, and try to be a little -- no, make that a LOT,
nicer this year.
 
David Berry
Victoria, B.C.
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