TAKING IT TO THE STREET
Knox United organist Patricia Deibert has been playing O Canada, hymns and other songs every Sunday at noon with the church’s windows open so passersby can enjoy. Effective this week, places of worship can resume limited services.
If you’re downtown in Saskatoon on a Sunday afternoon, you might be lucky enough to hear the pipe organ.
At noon on Sunday — just like it’s been on every Sunday since Easter — the pipes of the organ at Knox United Church near the riverside resound with music. First it’s O Canada, then some uplifting hymns that echo out from the windows of the church, and then O Canada again to end the set.
Sitting at the organ, humming along to the songs she plays every Sunday, is longtime Knox organist Patricia Deibert.
“I just want to. I guess I just need to,” she said. “On that Sunday at noon, I always hope ... some people are going by and hear it.”
Deibert, who’s been the organist at Knox United Church for 37 years, grew up with the instrument.
As the daughter of a former Knox minister, she remembers the first time she got to play the instrument at the church when she was a young girl.
She’d only ever played the piano, but when the organist at the time offered her a chance to play a few notes on the church’s pipe organ, she fell in love with it.
“From then on, my heart is always with that organ at Knox church,” she said.
“When I go in there by myself or with people there, it’s a privilege and an honour ... I can’t describe it.”
When the province of Saskatchewan declared a state of emergency in mid-march to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, churches and religious services were some of the first to suspend their operations due to the size of their congregations.
But as Easter approached in April, Deibert was determined to play her traditional hymns. So she and a couple of friends — maintaining safe social distancing — went over to the church and opened the windows so as many people as possible could hear her playing.
She’s played every Sunday since Easter for the community to hear. She always plays O Canada, and usually adds positive songs like What A Wonderful World, as well as her favourite hymns and marches.
It brings her comfort, so Deibert hopes it can be a comfort to others in Saskatoon.
“All my life, being raised as a minister’s daughter, it’s just always been there,” she said. “For my own sake, and for the words of those Easter hymns, the calmness it brought me ... I thought if I could just pass those words to people, maybe they’d have a little bit of courage.”
After decades of playing Knox’s organ, Deibert said she hasn’t had to miss too many days of playing. The roughly month-long stretch between the closures in March and Easter celebrations in April might be the longest she’s gone without playing her beloved instrument.
Hopefully, it’ll never happen again.
“I’m scared. I think everyone kind of is, through this,” she said. “I also have hope that everything will be fine, when I play that organ ... soon they’ll be singing with it, instead of me humming and playing by myself.”