Chillicothe Gazette from Chillicothe, Ohio • 17

Sunday IT tion nspira EE Sunday School Teacher of the Week Who will play God's music? Many churches lack organist "Trained church musicians are all fired up to give glory to God through our art, and it's not what the clergy want." Randall Egan, a retired organist Name: Elva Parfitt Age: 36 Address: 626 Wills Road, Ray Family: Husband, Ray Parfitt, 17 years; Children, Natasha and Raymond Parfitt. Church: New Covenant Apostolic Church Name of class: Primary, ages 7-12 Years as a Sunday School teacher: 10 years Why I teach Sunday School: The reason I teach is I love planting the seed in their hearts and as they grow older, watch them use it in their lives. My favorite Bible verse: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts now, 'Don't give up your day job says Swann, who played for decades at some of the nation's most famous churches, including Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, and Riverside Church in Manhattan.

"The points of tension are common in any church, large or small. Who chooses the music? Who plans the program?" says Wartburg College's Black, who gets constant calls from Iowa towns looking for help. She runs workshops for organists around the state to educate them not only on the sacred music repertory, but also on the fine points of "working with the theology and culture of the church community. Organists have to be sensitive to the congregations as well as to the music." After the organist for Lutheran Church of Abiding Presence in Burke, left for a larger post at another church, the congregation searched for months without applicants, music director Bob Lansell says. "And I wasn't surprised.

I wouldn't expect a top-flight professional organist to come to this job. It's not an organ a great musician would hunger to play. It's a small electronic organ donated from someone's home about 30 years' ago. The job is only part time and doesn't pay that much. We finally found someone through pure luck.

A man walked in, just walked in, who was new to the area. His forte is the piano, but he can do the job for us. By CATHYLYNN GROSSMAN Gannett News Service The organ, the king of instruments, no longer rules in countless Christian sanctuaries. "Churches are losing their music," says music professor Karen Black of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Benches stand empty in country churches and city cathedrals, across denominations, across the country.

Michael Silhavy, director of music for the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul has scant time to talk about the shortage of organists in 222 Catholic parishes. He has to fill in playing at funerals. "It can take months to fill a position, and a church may not get many choices," says Bob Anderson, who runs the placement service for the American Guild of Organists (AGO) chapter in the Twin Cities. Anderson sees 24 vacancies, a record high, right now, including churches with magnificent instruments such as Central Lutheran Church, Hamlin United Methodist Church and St.

Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. People able and willing to play sacred music are hard to find, hard to keep and, some say, hard to please. A counterpoint of conflicts underlies the problem. The organists complain of measly pay and, worse, musically ignorant clergy. "One organist in the country might make $100,000 at a 'big and rest are lucky to earn $30,000, The old refrain is Please let us know about your favorite Sunday School teachers.

Call Linda Skaggs at the Gazette at 772-9375 to nominate someone. 'We can't pay you much, but we get lots of which means you have no weekends, no life, working 36 hours straight," says Jared Jacobsen, who plays the world's largest outdoor organ in services and concerts at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York every summer. Most of the jobs are part time. 'There's not a lot of incentive for a $100-a-week job playing Thursday night rehearsals and once or twice on Sundays in carpeted churches with terrible acoustics," says Robert Plimpton, civic organist for the city of San Diego, who also plays for Faith Presbyterian Church. "Trained church musicians are all fired up to give glory to God through our art, and it's not what the clergy want," says Randall Egan, a retired organist in Minneapolis.

"They're jealous because music expresses what words cannot. They don't recognize our vocation." Silhavy frets: "I've seen organists replaced by recordings for the congregation to sing with. It's karaoke worship. What's next? Charlton Heston reading the Scripture?" Clergy and church administrators respond that organists resist contemporary worship styles. "They are artists, and we respect this, but the music has to be part of a larger vision," says Joe Bjordal, director of communications for St.

Mark's in Minneapolis. The cathedral has been hunting for the right permanent replacement since its organist and choirmaster of 27 years retired and new clergy took over the cathedral two years ago. An interim organist plays most services, but St. Mark's has experimented with a Spanish guitarist during Communion and a jazz pianist on Pentecost Sunday. "The new dean thought that, to put more people in the pews, there needed to be changes to allow a greater diversity of musical styles, including some contemporary.

We just had our first jazz service in 142 years. We are trying to push the envelope," Bjordal says. Fred Swann, organist for First Congregational Church in Los Angeles, has heard that song before. "Whenever there's any kind of problem at church, it's usually the music that gets blamed," Swann says. "This has gone on forever.

Even Bach had to take constant criticism from his congregation: too long, too florid, too this, too the other. I would tell a young person considering this profession Indians want state to give them hallucinogen rules Stark had them illegally-Indian leaders opposed destroying the peyote, which is eaten and used to brew a tea during religious ceremonies in the church. "It is so sacred, so precious to us," said Johnny Blackhorse, president of A Shii-Be-To chapter of the Native American Church in Salt Lake City. call it 'Mother Peyote! because that is how we feel about it If somebody damages it, it would be like somebody hurting your mother." Peyote is a hallucinogenic cactus that grows in the limestone soils of the Chihuahuan desert in Mexico. For generations, American Indians have considered it integral to traditional religious ceremonies.

Under federal law, use of peyote during ceremonies in traditional American Indian religions is lawful. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Leaders of the Native American Church have asked state investigators to hand over 3,500 peyote buttons seized during an investigation. Nick Stark, who says he is a medicine man in the Oklevueha Earth Walks chapter of the Native American Church, had the. buttons before police confix cated them July 8. Stark said as a spiritual leader, he is entitled to use and share the hallucinogenic plant.

However, other Native American Church members claim he is an impostor. Weber County police and prosecutors, investigating Stark for possible drug distribution charges, could destroy the peyote if a court MBMMMaBSMMKBaBCBM mini $240 $425 J. $35 ECONOMY FULL SET Custom Full Set Custom Single Custom Partial Premium Full Set Simple Extraction Full-mOUth X-ray (Required for Fees subject to change. No Appointment Necessary Same Day Service If In Before 9 a.m. We gladly accept Cash, Visa, MasterCard and Discover as payment for our services.

We are unable to accept checks. Convenient Chillicothe Location Cblumbla.Gas of Ohio More than 500,000 customers have saved by making a choice. Have you made yours? Call us to find out more about the Customer CHOICE Program. 1-800-344-4077 (1-877-460-2443 TDDTTY) For more information, contact: PUCO's Gas CHOICE 1-800-299-7271 Ohio Consumers' Counsel: 1-877-742-5622 Exit US 23 at Hwy 159. Office is located next to the Super K-Mart GfiD CHMIoohTg Ta NrlamMittH" AFFORDABLE DENTURES-CHILUCOTHE, JUDSON R.

WYNKOOP, II, DDS, P.C For more information, please call l-800-DENTURE (1-800-336-8873) Judson R. Wynkoop, DDS, General Dentist 1S32 N. Bridge St, Chillicothe, OH (740)772-6858 ChoicS- VALUABLE COUPON Customer Offer good only at jMiiifi AGoodBeasonToSrmle. Make a Choice. Take Control Affordable Dertures-Chllllcottte, Judson R.

Wynkoop, DDS, P.C Judson R. Wynkoop, II, DOS, General Dentist I 1532 N. Bridge St, Chillicothe, OH www.columbiagasohio.com 5 SAVE $20 SAVE $10 on Any Style Full on Any Style Single I Set Dentures1 orPartial Denture Coupon must be presented when servicesare provided Expires U3000J a Li.