Restored organ plays new tune

THE more than 1000 congregants at the Weis Memorial Congregational Church in Port Elizabeth were singing to an entirely new-sounding tune yesterday when the Schauderville church inaugurated the third largest church organ in South Africa.

The church was the recipient of the organ donation – and a consequent organ transplant of an altogether different kind– as a result of a partnership between the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), the university's Alumni Association and the church.

The organ, which boasts 2670 pipes and 39 stops and is third in size behind organs in the Dutch Reformed Church in Summerstrand and the largest at St Mary's Cathedral, both in Port Elizabeth, has a replacement value of about R5-million. - Shaun Gillham