The young Buckeye Catholic congregation at the Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center, adjacent to the Ohio State University campus, is known for the enthusiasm of its singing. Now it has an organ of sufficient quality to help it “make a joyful noise unto the Lord” (Psalm 100:1).
The instrument, built in 1969 by the Moller organ company of Pennsylvania, replaces a portable electric organ owned by the Diocese of Columbus that also was used at men’s and women’s conferences and other events. The Moller organ was dedicated and blessed by Bishop Earl Fernandes on March 29 at the Newman Center; located at 64 W. Lane Ave. Also present for the dedication was Bishop Fernandes’ predecessor, Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York.
“The previous instrument, while beneficial for the time, couldn’t fully support the congregation,” said Nicole Simental, music director for Buckeye Catholic, the ministry affiliated with the center. “One of the blessings here at Buckeye Catholic is that the students sing full heart and voice. They are a singing congregation and they love to glorify the Lord, so the ‘new’ pipe organ, being able to support them, is really vital to that.”
Though it’s only 55 years old – relatively young for an organ – the instrument has served congregations at three sites in two states. It was first installed in a church in New Jersey. That church fell into disuse and the console and its pipes were placed in storage.
It was acquired by the Diocese of Columbus a few years ago and was installed in Bremen St. Mary Church. Shawn Kenney, director of the Museum of Catholic Art and History in Columbus, and other organ enthusiasts volunteered to install it at Bremen and update its computer system.
The Bremen church was closed in a merger with Lancaster St. Bernadette Church as part of the diocese’s Real Presence Real Future initiative. That left the organ again without a home, but not for long.
Simental said in the summer of 2024 that the Newman Center was looking for a new organ and Father Dan Olvera, St. Bernadette pastor, offered to donate any components from the Moller organ the center needed. These turned out to be the console, the central pipes and the two flanking cabinets holding additional pipes. Simental was familiar with the organ because she had been the organist for its dedication ceremony.
Components such as a larger blower and leather bellows (re-leathered by Kenney) came from a cache of rescued parts he keeps in a storage facility.
Kenney oversaw installation of the organ at its new home by a small group of dedicated volunteers. The process took about four months. The blower, new ductwork and the bellows were installed by Newman Center maintenance coordinator Jim Severance. Once the installation was finished, Clark Wilson, organist for the Ohio Theater in Columbus, helped with the final testing to give the organ its voice.
“The organ is fully functional now, although there are a few things we need to do to it,” Kenney said. “One is that we’re going to add a set of large wooden bass pipes which came from (now-closed) Columbus Corpus Christi Church — another example of saving these instruments from a dumpster fate. These pipe organs were built to last forever, but we need to maintain them and store them properly. This one has been re-homed at least two or three times, and hopefully it will serve Buckeye Catholic for many years to come.
“It’s important that people know that pipe organs work so well with choirs because they, like a choir itself, have ‘lungs.’ They have air that passes through and ‘breathes’ into the pipes, literally giving it sound, and thus they blend so well with the voices of the choir. Plus, they are loud. A big instrument can be heard in a large church and an entire congregation can sing with it.”
Installation of the organ is part of a remodeling of the center that began in 2022 and included creation of a choir loft in what had been an elevated, glass-enclosed ‘cry room’ for children. The building’s former choir space was on its main floor adjacent to the sanctuary. Its only instruments were a piano and the portable organ.
“I love Jesus and the Church and I love sacred music – I’m very passionate about it – and I love helping young people become closer to Christ through the ministry of music within the (diocesan Office of) Divine Liturgy,” Simental said. “The new choir loft has really expanded our ability to do this, especially with the recent addition of the pipe organ there.”
Kenney has been involved with the museum since its earliest days as the Holy Family Jubilee Museum in the former Columbus Holy Family School. “The museum helped spark my interest in pipe organs,” he said. “I started volunteering at the original museum when I was 18 and became the director 10 years ago. Over the years, I gradually learned about the workings of pipe organs and was mentored in playing the instruments by a number of highly skilled organists. I also began accumulating and storing parts of old pipe organs whenever they became available.”
The former Newman Center organ “was getting old and was struggling. There are notes that weren’t working. There were electronics that were starting to fail, which is common. The problem was in finding an instrument which would work in its place. At Newman, there’s a very weird space upstairs in the loft to accommodate the necessary components of an organ, as well as the members of the choir.”
“I think that what Nicole’s doing at Buckeye Catholic, with the organ and the choir, is that the music is more than just worshiping God; it’s evangelization,” Kenney said. “St. Augustine of Hippo is said to have written, ‘He who sings well prays twice.’ And that’s what they’re doing there. The students who go there often face a huge struggle going to college. That’s when a lot of them lose their faith. So by singing, having beautiful music and sharing in a beautiful Mass and church tradition, that’s going to keep them strong in their faith throughout their college years.”
