Editor’s Note: This notice was provided by Christ Church Pelham. 

December 4, 2019 – Pelham, New York. Christ Church, Pelham, the Episcopal Church in Pelham will offer A Festival of Lessons and Christmas Carols and the blessing of the new Jack Hennigan Memorial Pipe Organ this Sunday, December 8 at 5:00 pm. This is the first public event featuring Juget-Sinclair Opus 51, the 2 manual, 2,400 pipe Montreal-built pipe organ recently installed in Pelham’s historic Episcopal Church. As the culmination of the popular service offering Christmas carols sung by choir and congregation with 6 lessons read from the Bible which tell the Christmas story, the Right Reverend Andrew St John, retired rector of the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City and retired assisting bishop from the Anglican Diocese of Australia, will bless the organ to the glory of God and the enrichment of the community’s musical life.  The service is free and open to the public. All are welcome. A free-will collection will be received.

About the Jack Hennigan Memorial Pipe Organ
Envisioned over a decade ago by the late Dr. Jack Hennigan, chair of the parish’s organ committee, and donated by Dr. Martin Nash, his long-time partner, the Jack Hennigan Memorial Pipe Organ was built by the Juget-Sinclair Facteurs d’Orgues firm of Montreal. Featuring two manuals and a pedal division, this 2,400 pipe instrument was built in the French symphonic tradition with some eclectic features which make it an ideal instrument to accompany choral and congregational singing and to play the vast solo organ repertoire.

About Lessons and Carols:
In continuous use in Truro Cathedral since 1880 when the Bishop of Truro, Edward White Benson (later Archbishop of Canterbury) formalized an earlier custom at the cathedral, a festival of 9 lessons and carols was adopted by King’s College, Cambridge’s famous choir in 1918 and subsequently popularized around the world through its annual radio and television broadcast. This service has become one of the most popular Anglican choral highlights of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Christ Church will offer a slightly abbreviated version of this service with 6 lessons.