PC donates pipe organ to South Korean church
October 20, 2008
PC recently donated its former pipe organ to Seong Dong Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
The pipe organ from Belk Auditorium had been in storage since 2007. PC acquired the 1946 Moeller from Lutheran Seminary in Columbia in the 1960's. Twenty years later the organ was updated with additional ranks of pipes.
"The organ was a mainstay and workhorse for PC," said PC Music Department chair, Dr. Porter Stokes. "In almost 30 years of service (since its renovation), many students played it, many a hymn was accompanied by it, and many were the memories it created."
While the organ was in storage, half a world away in South Korea, Seong Dong Presbyterian Church began a long-awaited renovation. The church did not have sufficient funds to start, but the city of Seoul, wanting to rescue one of its most historically important church buildings, agreed to fund the renovation.
Chinese workers built the church in the late 1880's, a few years after PC was founded. The first brick church in Seoul, Seong Dong is the oldest church building remaining in Korea, according to townspeople. Military aggressions during the Korean Conflict demolished most other buildings.
The church has seen its share of hardship over the years, leading to several modifications. During the past 130 years the building suffered from wind, weather, and water damage in several areas. Despite modifications, the building remained in critical condition until the interest in renovation.
Although funds were limited, the church showed an interest in installing an organ as a part of the renovation. Vincent Treanor, a master organ builder, agreed to help the church find someone who might want to help support the project. His Treanor Organ Company builds, acquires, reconditions, and installs vintage instruments.
Treanor found PC's organ for sale on the internet and through word-of-mouth.
"The church is determined to have a pipe organ," he told Stokes. "The early churches in Korea had either pianos or the venerable reed organs."
The organ's size then posed a problem.
"Being unfamiliar with organs, and of course, not having the wherewithal, the Korean churches, even today, have no place for a pipe organ," Treanor said. "We have a really small space to put the organ, but somehow we will make it work."
And they did. After completing the extensive paperwork, the organ was loaded into a shipping container and traveled from Clinton to Charleston by train and then to Husan, Korea by ship. From there, Treanor and company and the Reverend Song-Hoon Park transported the organ to the church.
Treanor even devised a setting for the organ, splitting the pipe work on two sides of the church in arched chambers with casework in front. The pedal division will be at extreme sides, on the choir platform with room for the organ console and piano.
"To be able to provide a service," Stokes said, "to Christians and Presbyterians across the planet by disassembling the organ ourselves, storing it for more than a year, finding a home for it, preparing it for shipment, producing the complex documentation required for the donation by the Korean government, and helping to load all six tons of it in a transport shipping container -- all that is part of 'Dum Vivimus Servimus.' It's part of what makes this place special. And it was the right thing to do."
posted by Stacy Dyer '96