May 2023

I’ve often commented to the clergy, with whom I’ve worked, that the church does Lent and Easter backwards. We offer many classes, events, concerts, and activities to get people to come church during Lent, and then after Easter attendance starts to slide and we start to run out of ‘steam’. I get it that the schools are busy with end-of-year events, the weather has (hopefully) improved, and we are all exhausted from our Lenten disciplines and preparations for Easter.

Let us remember that Easter is a season, not a day. Indeed, the season of Eastertide is called the ‘Great Fifty Days’. In the churches where I have served, we have worked to offer a variety of events to sustain the celebration of Easter, including an Easter Art Show and Artist’s reception, concerts, Evensongs, classes, etc. 

Our AGO chapter participation and attendance can also suffer from post-Easter, end-of-the-year fatigue. To counter this, the Baltimore chapter has offered two inspiring programs to sustain our chapter in April and May. Eric Plutz’ splendid concert (a co-sponsorship with Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church) and the upcoming Organ Crawl to Lancaster, PA with the Hilbus Chapter of the Organ Historical Society. The Organ Crawl will let us visit several important and interesting instruments and give us the chance to socialize with members of our chapter and with our colleagues in the OHS. It is going to be a fun and enlightening day. I hope that you will plan to come along. There are further details in this issue of the Pipe & Pedal. Be sure to make your reservation right away. When you see him, thank David Storey who worked tirelessly to make the arrangements for this trip! 

Finally, it is my great pleasure to congratulate and welcome our two new Executive Committee members—Ted Davis and Chris Schroeder—whose terms will begin on July 1. We look forward to the gifts you bring to the Executive Committee and to working with you. On behalf of the Baltimore AGO, I would like to thank the other two candidates—Warren Hood and Jordan Prescott—for offering themselves for election. I’m sorry that we couldn’t elect all four. We hope that Warren and Jordan will be open to other ways to participate in the life of Baltimore AGO. It is also my honor to thank our two outgoing Executive Committee members—Paul Byssainthe and Daniel Fisher—for their service to Baltimore AGO and to encourage them to continue to find ways to continue to be involved in the chapter’s activities. 

I look forward to visiting with you during the Organ Crawl.

Bert

The May 2023 issue of the Pipe and Pedal is now available.