Knox offers lunch hour Advent concert series

The Knox Presbyterian Church’s Advent Organ Series wraps up on Dec. 3 and Dec. 10, at 55 Hincks St., in St. Thomas, offering a festive exploration of the virtues of an instrument that made its Elgin County debut in the 1880s.

“You don’t have to be looking for a religious experience to come to the organ series,” Knox Music Director Amadeusz (Sandy) Kazubowski-Houston said in an interview. “This is our way of reaching out to the community and showing that we really care about music and just want people to enjoy the organ.”

Mr. Kazubowski-Houston launched the lunch-hour Advent series on Nov. 19, running on Wednesdays at 12 noon. Doors open at 11:30 a.m., and concerts run about 30 minutes. Cost is $10 per person at the door and includes a sandwich and coffee. All proceeds go to maintaining the church organ.

“Each week of advent has a different theme, focusing on hope, peace, joy and love, then it culminates on Christmas Eve, when we have two services, a family service at 6 p.m. and a more formal service at 8 p.m.,” he said. Reverend Deb Dolbear-Van Bilsen, the Interim Minister at Knox, will deliver the services.

“On Christmas Eve, we’ll have a brass ensemble, a full choir, organ pieces galore, and then we finish off with the Knox tradition, one of our choir leads goes up to the balcony and sings Silent Night in German, with all the lights dimmed,” he added. German is the original language of the carol Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. “It’s a very special occasion.”

For more details, see the Dec. 3 edition of The Aylmer Express. (AE/Joe Konecny)