Benched!

I admit, the title of this posting gave me some trouble. But I finally found the word in my father's 1950 Merriam & Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in the sense I intended, "sports: a player returned to the bench" or in other words, out of the game (for now). Double irony in that the player I refer to here is retiring from the bench -- not as judge, but as organist.

I don't remember when Kathy started as backup organist (or pianist, in our days as "church-in-a-box" when the rental hall's piano was all we had), or when she became at various times our primary organist, but she's been a key part of St. Bartholomew's music for just about forever.

And that includes playing the rental (Chamber of Commerce!) hall piano, some cheap little Amana toy organ for a short term in the 80s (it was surprising to see what fell out of it when we opened it up to clean it), an 1889 Sears & Roebuck parlour pump organ trucked in for special occasions, the WWI Army field organ used in our first service in our building at 3 PM Christmas Eve 1986 (no electricity, fire marshal wouldn't let us use candles, no heat, folding chairs amidst plaster dust -- but it was ours!), and the various electronic organs since.

But today was her last day on the bench; we have hired an organist to carry that load. This frees Kathy's time up for contributions in other areas including music: for example, she sang a cappella (and two of my big favorites) for the Offertory this Advent, and played her harp for Communion.

And she reminds us: we will continue to hear about Kairos, cookies and more.