1986

Pastor Kenneth Jetto, conducting services. According to church historian Mark Anderson, Pastor Jetto is an excellent liturgist. As well as his fine voice, he has an intuitive as well as a schooled grasp of liturgy.

The organ bass pipes were repaired. (Click the picture to enlarge it.) According to historian Anderson(1):

The Hook and Hastings organ is almost perfectly matched to the acoustic and architectural space of the church building. It is a small, single manual (keyboard), and pedalboard instrument, with a tracker action (direct mechanical linkage), and with a limited number of stops. It was built in Boston in 1885, just ten years prior to the dedication of Christ's Church. What was not known when the organ was purchased was that the instrument is pitched nearly a half tone higher than standard tuning. It is not possible to add lengths to pipes and so it will always remain at that high pitch. This can be a challenge for tenors trying to sing high parts! It was also quickly learned that wind instruments (clarinets, trumpet, oboes, etc.) could not tune high enough to play with the organ. After a number of years, it was discovered that many wind instruments of the nineteenth-century American bands were also made to play in this high tuning. There is speculation that the organist and music director of the church in New Hampshire may also have been the local bandmaster (every New England town had its own brass band in those days), and so he may have specified the high tuning to Hook and Hastings, knowing that he would then be able to use his band members in church.

Serendipitously, I was able to acquire a number of these kinds of instruments--three cornets and a horn. For about twenty years, we have been able to use some of the considerable literature that is available for the combination of organ and brass instruments.

The following is from the report of the annual congregational meeting on December 14(2):

It was a year of good and not so good.… We've baptized, wedded, mourned, prayed, sung.… We've gained some "faithful" and lost others.…

There is a black cloud, however--one that has hovered over us for a few years: that of a deficit budget. Different ways have been tried to counter this, but none has been a permanent solution.… I am not alone in believing the solution is Spirit. Our collective spirit has flagged, allowing us to give Christ's less than our ability to serve or to pay might allow.…

We must ask ourselves: "How can I help?" You get more when you give more.

Let's start by loving one another, as the Lord said we should. Serve God--create. join, administer--make the Lord work through you! We have such potential. You are the church--we are the church--together!

Yours in Christ,
Carol Petterson
Council President

The Altar Guild functions quietly throughout the year, preparing for each church service and cleaning up afterwards. We consist of six devoted members: Eleanor Anderson and Marilyn Ives; Edna DeWitt and Isabel Bengston; Nora Haaland and Barbara Stephens.…

Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Stephens
Altar Guild Chairman

The Metropolitan New York Synod celebrated its 200th anniversary in August.

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Ronald Reagan (Republican) was President. The 99th Congress was in session. (The midterm elections that year would elect the 100th Congress.) A dollar in that year would be worth $1.74 in 2006 for most consumable products.

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