MARTINSVILLE — While a hidden and sadly often forgotten piece of a church building, the pipe organ serves as a main worship aide in many Catholic churches.
More than 100 years ago, an organ crafted by John Hinners was installed in St. Martin of Tours Church in Martinsville.
The organ’s pipes were vibrantly painted in the Victorian style of that time with navy blue stenciling and a coral background.
It is one of the few Hinners organs left in the nation to not have any alterations.
Since then, the leather on the bellows, which pumps air into the organ, had begun to wither and crack.
Some of the leather was even being held together by duct tape.
In the 1960s, the beautiful stenciling on the pipes was painted over, unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence in Catholic churches during that time.
Restoring beauty
In 2018 the music director at the time, Tyler Pimm, began talking to Pastor Fr. Chris Gernetzke about repairing the leather on the bellows.
Shortly after that time, Pimm went back to graduate school, and Andrew Zimmerman was hired as music director.
After COVID hit, the whole project was put on hold.
In the fall of 2022, John from the Nolte Organ Company began re-leathering the bellows for the first time since the organ’s 114 years of installation.
In January of 2023, St. Martin organist Ken Stancer played the organ with the newly leathered bellows.
While this labor was a beautiful reminder of how music can help us in worshiping Our Lord, the next part of the organ’s journey was a labor of love.
Stancer, who began playing the organ in 2018, noticed that he could see some of the old stencilings behind the paint that had covered the pipes since the 1960s.
It was then that Stancer asked Father Gernetzke if he could lead a project to repaint the pipes, maintaining the artistic style of the original paint and offered himself to paint them.
Father Gernetzke agreed, and so began Stancer’s labor of love.
From March to early May of this year, Stancer has worked countless hours, even some eight-hour days, on bringing back the organ’s vitality.
He consulted an organ company about how to properly clean and buff the pipes so they would be ready to paint.
His sister, Audra Cook, and friends, Dale Carder and Darek Hartwig, helped him lift the pipes from the organ onto sawhorses so he could paint them.
He re-stenciled the designs that were originally on the pipes to repaint them and for ones he could not see, he took inspiration from other stencil marks to create a unique stencil.
When it came time to decide what colors the pipes would be, Stancer and Father Gernetzke talked for a while about going back to the original colors.
After some thought, the two decided that artistically it would be beautiful for the pipes to match the colors in the stained-glass windows at St. Martin.
The greens and cream colors also match the rolling hills and farm country of the surrounding area of Martinsville.
Stancer has been joyful about the project from start to finish.
While admitting that there were some cold rainy days on which he drove to St. Martin, he found the project enlightening. “When I was here painting, I just felt so peaceful. I just felt myself being filled up.”
Watching Ken’s face as he gazed upon his work, it was a face of pure humility and selflessness.
He wanted to paint the pipes because he knew how beautiful they would be — he wanted the organ to match its beautiful voice.
While some church organs are rarely seen in plain sight, they are used to raise hymns and psalms to God and praise Him in the Mass.
Stancer’s work is a reminder of gratuity and of simply doing something for beauty.
Recital and rededication
Stancer and St. Martin of Tours Parish are excited to share this labor of love.
Join them in celebrating the completion of the project at St. Martin of Tours Church, 5959 St. Martin Cir., Martinsville, on Thursday, June 8, starting at 6:30 p.m.