I wouldn't trade a pipe organ for anything else, but I find that it's the selection of hymns that is the most important thing. BTW, and thinking of Timothy's comments, the reason the pianist in the OP doesn't use the organ may be that she simply is unable to do justice to it. A lot of people think that if you can play one, you can play the other, but not so if we're talking old pipe organs.
Yes, this is true. Even with a new pipe organ it is not the same, it is very easy to deafen the whole congregation of leave them with a buzzing headache.
THIS IS SOMEWHAT OFF-TOPIC
What is the average age of your congregations? What is your average Sunday attendance? Are your churches growing? IMHO, deciding whether pianos are preferred to organs will not draw very many into the church, and may keep many out. Of course, many young folk love the organ, and the violin too no doubt.
IMHO, we will not reach the unchurched without having services that appeal to the unchurched, and especially the young. And I am not talking about a youth prayer meeting. We need to be a place where the lost and the unchurched can come comfortably.
We have no need to water down doctrine. We do have a need to the purpose of church is not to have the kind of music that pleases us most, or have the musci that church has always had. We need to remember that the many of the hymns of the 16th century were set to popular tavern tunes, using tavern instruments like the piano.
Our parish, I believe, has about 100 families. THat is how many I counted on our parish prayer list in any case. I am not sure of weekly attendance. It is less this time of year, in part because of vacations and in part because a significan number of the parishoners are university students attending locally.
The congregation has a fairly wide age distribution for an Anglican parish. There are as I noted lots of students, but also lots of young families with small children. There seems to be a bit of a dip between the those groups and the seniors.
Growth has been quite high in recent years, which is where many of the young families came from. Our nursery had to be moved to a larger space and may have to move again - the Sunday school is about to take up the new population as well.
What has attracted people to the parish has NOT been an effort to appeal to the unchurched (and many of the students were before coming to us.) It is an integrity of worship that became a focus a number of years ago that led to an emphasis on really substantial, well done liturgy as the expression of and heart of the communal life of the parish. That means, for example, the daily offices being offered in the parish. That has also born fruit in attention to the music program which is a major attraction for many newcomers, though that is not why it was developed. It was developed as an appropriate response to God. It started fairly small (before my time) and has grown over the years.
As for what the music looks like - Our parish sings the weekly mass settings, usually in polyphony. They may be older ones or modern. Psalms are sung responsivly in plainchant by the cantor and congregation. Hymns are largely traditional though not always, with organ accompanyment. The choir usually sings a post-communion motet which is often, but not always, fairly contemporary (but not pop-ish or folksy.) We also have in the past year started a music program for children. There is usually an organ postlude.
And just in case anyone thinks this is all style and no substance, our communal prayer and worship life has also produced a pretty significant mission program in the local, depressed, neighbourhood.
