Courtesy photo.
SANTA BARBARA — First United Methodist Church, Santa Barbara will celebrate the glory of our Risen Lord with worship services on Easter Sunday at 9:00am and 10:45am. The identical services will feature anthems by the Chancel Choir including Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”, under the direction of Nathan Kreitzer accompanied by organist Dr. Steve Hodson, and brass quintet. Additional special handbell music will be performed under the direction of Michael Eglin. The Rev. Dr. Mark Richardson will offer a brief Easter message “Welcome: The New Jerusalem”
The sanctuary of the historic 1927 Spanish Colonial Revival style church will be decorated with banks of Easter lilies and two rows of intricately appliquéd banners commissioned for the Eastertide Season.
The First United Methodist Church of Santa Barbara is celebrating its 150th year as a congregation in 2017. We are located at the corner of Garden and Anapamu Streets, one block from the SB Courthouse. Onsite parking is available with the parking entrance off Garden Street. For more information call 963-3579 or visit our website www.fumcsb.org
The pipe organ at FUMC is considered a premiere instrument in the city of Santa Barbara, and is the third largest pipe organ in Santa Barbara. It was originally installed in 1961 as a three-manual Aeolian-Skinner instrument of 31 ranks. In 1993, a 61-pipe Trompette-en-chamade was added as a memorial gift, installed above the altar by the Schantz Organ Company of Orville, Ohio. In 1999 the same firm installed a new three-manual console, featuring multiple memory systems and capture action. Most recently, in 2003, Schantz brought the organ to gorgeous tonal completion with the addition of 20 new ranks of pipes, as well as three digital ranks of 32’ pitch stops. The added registers include an entirely new Great division mounted on slider chests; unenclosed diapason pipework from the new Great is now framed in classical pipe facades on both sides of the Chancel. The instrument stands today at 52 ranks, totaling over 2,500 pipes, plus three digital pedal stops.