When a Vancouver newcomer wandered into Central Presbyterian last August and asked if he could play the organ, the congregation thought their prayers had been answered.
Martin John Stephen Lovelyn, known to his friends as Lovelyn, replaced their Montreal-bound organist the following Sunday. He continued to play at worship until November when he completed his work in Vancouver and returned to his native India.
Before leaving, he mentioned that his home church needed a new organ—a difficult commodity to find in India. Could a second-hand organ be found and shipped to his church, he wondered?
Elder Gillan Jackson and Rev. Jim Smith took his request to presbytery; Eileen Sparrow, a representative elder for St. Aidan’s in New Westminster, said an organ had recently been offered to their church.
To thank Lovelyn for his musical ministry, Central paid to ship the organ over 15,000 km from Vancouver to Singapore to Nhava Shev, India to Delhi. It took over two months to arrive, but on March 15, the congregation of Christ Church in Nodia, India, held a special dedication service for their new organ, played by Lovelyn. —with files from Kathleen Bolton
