New pipe organ for St George’s Church
GEORGE TOWN: Hymns sung at St George’s Church will now be accompanied by a new pipe organ with 1,050 pipes.
The organ was donated to the church by the family of the late Datuk Tan Kim Yeow for its 200th anniversary celebrations.
Family representative Andrew Yong said the church had been using electronic keyboards for the past 10 years during worship services.
“We felt that every church needs an organ,” he said after the Sunday morning service yesterday.
During the service, Anglican Church of the Province of Southeast Asia Archbishop Datuk Ng Moon Hing led a service to consecrate the organ.
The first pipe organ in use by the church was a 16-stop organ built in 1899 by Forster and Andrews, and was destroyed by looters after bombs damaged the building in World War II.
As a result, pianos and electronic keyboards were subsequently used for the musical accompaniment.
The new organ is made by Mander Organs of London and took a year to build before being shipped to Penang, where workers took some four weeks to install it.
It is one of two pipe organs in Penang. The other is at the Church of the Assumption in Lebuh Farquhar.
It produces sound by driving pressurised air through organ pipes selected via a keyboard.
Ng said he was happy with the new pipe organ, pointing out two other Anglican churches in Malaysia have pipe organs – the St Mary’s Cathedral in Kuala Lumpur and the All Saints’ Church in Taiping.
On the bicentennial celebrations, St George’s Church Vicar Bishop Charles Samuel said the celebrations will culminate in 2019 when the church will host a full service to be attended by top clergymen from the region.
He said the church also aims to