Tracker Organ At
Abiding Presence Lutheran Church

The following is a portion of the booklet Service of Organ Dedication and Organ Celebration Recital, published as part of the Service of Organ Dedication. The Dedication was held at the Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, 2220 Pennington Road, Ewing, New Jersey 08638, on October 1, 1989 and repeated on October 15, 1989. The purpose of the dedication was to celebrate the extensive renovation of the organ, originally acquired by Abiding Presence in 1968.
 
The original organ at Abiding Presence was a 1908 Bates and Culley non-electric, tracker action instrument. It had originally been installed in the Zion Swedish Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. In 1965, when that congregation disbanded, Robert Whiting moved the organ to his residence in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. In the Fall of 1968, he sold the organ to Abiding Presence for the astounding amount of $300, in order to preserve it and allow him to assemble another larger tracker organ in his studio. Men of the congregation moved and installed the organ in the newly built Abiding Presence sanctuary. The organ was given as a memorial to the Rev. Alford R. Naus by his wife, Josephine, and friends of Pastor Naus from the Lutheran Church of the Savior in Trenton. Mr. Eugene Kelly, who was teach9ing at Rider College at the time, directed the installation, renovated and tonally revised the organ into a baroque instrument. When installed, the organ contained eight ranks of 571 pipes.
 
In 1987, as the 80 year old organ showed many signs of wear, much deterioration and malfunction, the Council directed the formation of a organ study committee to be chaired by Jack Ervin. This committee was asked to study all possibilities of organ sound in the sanctuary. After many meeting, discussions with builders, and visits to other churches, recommendation was made to the Council that Richard Kurtz of the R. W. Kurtz Organ Company be given a contract. The recommendation directed that the new instrument should include all of the present organ pipes, be enhanced with strings, and include an expression box for quiet sounds and choir accompaniment. Needed solo stops for manual and pedals, extended foundation stops and space for future stops were to be included.
 
On September 12, 1988, Council passed the recommendations of the organ study committee. At a special congregational meeting on October 30, 1988, it was voted to have an initial fund drive, with the remaining monies to be obtained through re-financing the church mortgage.
 
Fund raising began officially on January 1, 1989 with all groups in the church being contacted. A successful Organ Benefit Concert was held at Trinity United Methodist Church on April 21, 1989, with professional musicians of the congregation and friends performing.
 
Between July 11, 1989 and September 30, 1989, the original organ was dismantled and the new organ installed. Dedication Sunday was designated to be October 1, 1989. An Organ Celebration Recital was planned for October 15, 1989 with organists of the congregation and the church choir performing.