A 'bolt from the blue' tests resilience of South Jersey church

A late-July lightning strike left the venerable pipe organ inside Riverton's Christ Church "sounding like a haunted house," Deacon Naomi Cressman recalls.

Says Jeff Mack, a lifetime member of the Episcopal parish, who is its senior warden, or lay leader: "The noise was just ungodly."

Lightning strikes have occurred before at the church, a landmark that rises over Fourth and Main Streets in the Burlington County borough's leafy heart.

But the July 25 bolt disabled office computers, telephones, and even a coffeemaker; knocked out part of the air-conditioning system; and ripped a limb from a black cherry tree in the churchyard.

It also fried the organ's 40-year-old electronic controls; the impact blew sheet music off the console.

"It's unplayable," says organist Mark Cole, who's been making music on a rented electronic instrument, salvaged from a closed Episcopal church in Ventnor, for the last month.

All-electronic organs don't utilize pipes but, rather, digital recordings of pipes, and are not-so-affectionately referred to by musicians such as Cole as "toasters."

The rented instrument "fills the void," the Cinnaminson resident observes.

The pipe organ, one of the largest and finest of its kind in South Jersey, may cost as much as $150,000 to repair.

"A new instrument like this would cost $1 million today," Cole says.

The church is in discussions with its insurance carrier, has already heard from parishioners willing to help, and hopes to have the organ playable again by next spring, says the Very Rev. Richard C. Wrede, rector.

He and his wife, the Rev. Ann Wrede - she pastors Episcopal parishes in Riverside and Beverly - have lived at Christ Church for 11 years.

They note that music generally and the sound of the organ in particular are at the heart of worship services.

"Normally, the organ strikes up and you have this wonderful effect that just fills the space," says Rector Wrede, who describes the sound of the "toaster" as rather . . . flat.

Even more frustrating, he continues, is that in 2015 a leaky roof forced the shutdown of some of the mechanical pipes, limiting the sound of the organ until repairs were completed 10 months ago.

"In our theology, it's worship that empowers us to do the rest," he says.

The Riverton parish collects toys and food for needy people and has long had a financial and volunteer commitment to St. Paul's Episcopal, a human services mainstay in downtown Camden. Christ Church also participates in community activities in Riverton.

Designed by architect John Fraser, whose work includes Philadelphia's Union League, the handsome church was consecrated in 1884 and includes a stained-glass window signed by its creator, the renowned artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The circular "rose" window - unusual for the 19th century in that it portrays people of various skin colors - is a point of pride among the faithful.

Several of them pointed it out last Sunday during my visit, during which I also heard Wrede give an eloquent sermon about brotherhood, and listened to Cole play.

"It sounds better than we thought it would. He's such a good organist," says Eileen Durgin, a parishioner who lives in Cinnaminson.

Like Durgin, other members of the congregation also seemed to be taking the disruption of church life in stride.

"I sat on the opposite side [of the sanctuary] when the air-conditioning was out on the other side," says Roger King, 68, a retired Eastampton teacher who rings the bell for the 8 a.m. service.

And in a message to parishioners titled "The Bolt From the Blue," Wrede recounts how someone suggested that perhaps Christ Church had done something to incur the wrath of God.

He wrote: "I . . . suggested that if someplace was to be hit, better it to be Christ Church" than "individuals and institutions" less able to weather the storm.

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