The church took delivery of the organ parts, unassembled and in hundreds of boxes and packing crates, last October. Its nearly 3,000 pipes, ranging in size from 20 feet to as small as a pencil and fashioned from wood, "spotted metal" or copper, were manufactured over the previous 18 months by Casavant Frères in Québec, Canada, a company that has designed and fabricated pipe organs for nearly 180 years.

By mid-November, it was being "voiced," the adjustment process that insures the organ makes the proper sounds. On January 20, before a congregation of joyful voices, Bishop J. Neil Alexander of the Diocese of Atlanta led the prayers of consecration.

"The sound fills our worship space both perfectly and completely," said David Burton-Brown, director of music and organist at Grace. "The effect is full and grand without assaulting one's ears." Burton-Brown came to Grace in June 2005 from Christ Episcopal Church in Holly Springs, Mississippi, the spiritual epicenter of Jan Karon's newest book, Home to Holly Springs.

Before he arrived, the parish's organ committee studied organs, listened to instruments and prepared a list of "finalist" builders, he said. Casavant was chosen, he said, because the firm had accomplished the task of building a medium-small instrument with the acoustical ambiance of an English cathedral organ.

'No comparison'
The former organ was a 15-year-old electronic instrument. Although the speakers had been replaced several times, Burton-Brown said, the sounds emitted were "hissy" and unauthentic.

"This former organ filled the space with loud, imitative speaker-noise. The Casavant fills the space majestically in accordance with the nature laws of acoustical production. There simply is no comparison," he said.

A pipe organ is a wind instrument, just as the human voice is, he said. "The new organ has 3,000 pipes and therefore about 3,000 sound sources.

Congregations simply sing better to the sound of wind-blown pipes." And sing they did during the organ's consecration.

There is a direct link between the quality of a congregation's singing and its spiritual health, said Atlanta's bishop, who has a degree in organ playing. "I am absolutely convinced that one of the best barometers of the spiritual health of a parish is the vigor of its singing. When I enter a parish on Sunday morning, no matter how small or large, if the singing is strong and powerful, I discover all sorts of other manifestations of spiritual health and mission vitality."

Many musical moods
The new Casavant Freres, opus 3865, has 39 stops and 47 ranks and will provide a wonderful boost to musical activities throughout the county, Burton-Brown says. He plans to perform a dedicatory recital on April 20, featuring compositions by Whitlock, Bach, Saint-Saens, Sowerby, Bolcom and Reubke.

"The organ serves Christian worship well in that it provides, in various turns, meditative music for the praying soul, majestic music for the moment of praise and supportive music for both congregational and choir singing," Burton-Brown said. "That the organ has so many differing moods is part of its long-term appeal. No other single instrument can do all these things."

He expressed gratitude to Casavant for the organ's visual and acoustical beauty. "I'm also grateful for the sacrifices of time and money that many people made in order for this instrument to happen, and to Almighty God who has inspired in the hearts of humankind the desire to write music for the 'king of instruments.'"