Over the weekend of 7-9 September about 10,000 people gathered in Liverpool for the largest Catholic procession in the UK since the late Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1982. They were attending the first National Eucharistic Congress in the country since 1908.
The Catholic Church holds a Eucharistic Congress every three or four years in different countries. Although in certain countries, such as Italy, they are held regularly in different dioceses. This time in Liverpool, events were held on Friday and Saturday at Liverpool’s Echo Arena while hundreds also attended two Masses at the Metropolitan Cathedral and the procession on Sunday.
If you want to find out more about what happened at Adoremus – the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress – then you can read more here.
Anthony Bogdan Organs delivers
The enquiry for an organ came into us and subsequently passed on to Anthony Bogdan Organs Ltd, which is one of our Viscount dealers in the north of England. Anthony Bogdan was more than pleased to provide an instrument for this momentous occasion. It was decided that the instrument best suited for the Echo Arena and matching the requirements was one of our most popular hire instruments, the Viscount Envoy 35-F.
The instrument was delivered to the Echo Arena at lunchtime on Friday 7th September. As agreed with the customer, Anthony Bogdan had already voiced and regulated the instrument prior to arrival so it was promptly handed over to the team on the ground for installation. As you can see from the pictures the organ was taken by a fork lift truck to its designated place on the main stage ready for Saturday and the main Congress.
With some supervision from Anthony Bogdan the sound company at the Echo Arena managed to fairly quickly connect the organ to the main audio system. After a few minor tweaks the organ was ready for Saturday’s events where it was used for hymns and psalmody.
Sounding good
The organist for the day was Christopher McElroy who is Director of Music at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. From reliable sources who attended the Congress the organ sounded very good and accompanied the choir and attendees very well. Maybe if you were there yourself you can leave us a comment and let us know what you thought.
The organ was picked up later that same evening and as far as Anthony was told it had been a great day all-round with many happy attendees. Hopefully it won’t take another 110 years until the next National Eucharistic Congress!
This was the second major Catholic event where one of our Viscount dealers have provided hire instruments. The first event was earlier in September…and was the World Meeting of Families in Ireland where Jeffers Music in Bandon provided 3 instruments. We hope to also have a blog post from this event for you soon.
If you are interested in hiring an organ, whether it is for a similar event like this one, or a concert, recital or while your pipe organ is being refurbished ,please do get in contact with us to see how we can help!
I have had a passion for church organs since the tender age of 12. I own and run Viscount Organs with a close attention to the detail that musicians appreciate; and a clear understanding of the benefits of digital technology and keeping to the traditional and emotional elements of organ playing.
