wfn.org | Church of the Brethren pipe organ receives citation

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Oct. 27, 2005
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100  F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com) 
 
HISTORIC PIPE ORGAN RECEIVES CITATION
 
Oct. 27, 2005 (Elgin, IL) --  The Kurtz Organ received a Historic  Organ 
Citation from the Organ Historical Society at a ceremony and recital on  Oct.
16, 
during the fall meeting of the Church of the Brethren General  Board.
 
Stephen Schnurr, chair of the Historic Organ Citations Committee, presented  
the citation to Church of the Brethren general secretary Stan Noffsinger and 
Ken  Shaffer, archivist for the Brethren Historical Library and Archives 
(BHLA). The  small pipe organ is part of the BHLA collection. Since the
awarding of 
the first  citation in 1975, some 330 organs in the US and Canada have 
received the honor. 
 
Susan Friesen, a member of the society's Chicago-Midwest Chapter, gave the  
recital at the chapel at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin,
 
Ill. Several other members of the society attended along with Church of the  
Brethren board members, staff, and guests.
 
The organ also is known as the 1698 Johann Christoph Harttman pipe organ,  
named after its maker, and is one of the oldest organs in the United States.
It  
is the only known surviving work of Harttman, who was an organ builder in the

 Wurttemberg region of Germany in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. 
 
Henry Kurtz, editor of the first Church of the Brethren periodical the	
Gospel Visiter (sic), owned the organ and probably brought it with him from  
Germany. After Kurtz's death, the organ remained in the family for awhile and
 then 
was placed in Bethel Church in Poland, Ohio. A great-grandson of Kurtz,  Levi

P. Good, acquired the organ again by 1952. In 1957 it was given to the	
Brethren Historical Committee and moved to Elgin, Ill.
 
The organ arrived in Elgin in badly deteriorated condition. In the 1960s  
preliminary work to restore it was done by Al Brightbill, a noted Church of
the  
Brethren musician and seminary professor, along with other General Board 
staff.	In 1976, organ restorer John Brombaugh of Middletown, Ohio, finished
the  
restoration over a period of two months. Brombaugh, who is of Church of the  
Brethren background, was trained in Europe.
 
After its restoration, the organ was played at the Church of the Brethren  
Annual Conference in 1976. It also was featured in a recital at the 1984  
National Convention of the Organ Historical Society.
 
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to  
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith  in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith  
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its
 300th 
anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United	
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the  
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
 
# # #
 
For more information contact:
 
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the  Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-5100  ext. 260
_cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ 
(mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org) 
 
*****************************************************************
The  Church of the Brethren Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford,

 director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board. 
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