You can’t stop the music at Brookfield Chapel following an organ donation of a different kind.
Phemie and Newman Borg have gifted a new $19,000 electronic organ to the chapel, located at the Carinity Brookfield Green seniors’ community.
The Allen organ was donated in memory of Phemie’s late Aunt Heather Davey and fellow chapel supporter, the late Reverend Harry West, in celebration of their deep Christian faith and love of music.
“Aunt Heather was a resident at Brookfield Green for 11 years. She always enjoyed coming to chapel and she loved music and played an old pump organ,” Phemie says.
“The old organ was starting to fail… so there were a lot of conversations about what to do.
“When Heather passed away at 97, she left all her nieces and nephews quite a generous inheritance, so Newman and I felt we would really like to put a new organ into the chapel as a memorial.
“It is something that I know Aunty Heather would have totally approved of.”
Phemie, whose father, mother and two aunts lived at Carinity Brookfield Green at the same time in their later years, says Heather and Harry and were “so important to the lives of so many people within the chapel”.
Phemie says Harry was “an incredibly gifted man musically” and had an “incredible knowledge of all hymns”.
“Any hymns you that could think of… you’d mention a couple of words and Harry could recite every verse of that hymn,” Phemie says.
Carinity Brookfield Green chaplain Carol Lewins says the new organ “brings another dimension of warmth, depth and presence of the divine” to Sunday worship in the chapel, which was built in 1981.
“People who attend our chapel services… talk of their love for the hymns and the beautiful music the organ provides for them, as they are able to enjoy the hymns they have listened to from their early days,” Carol says.
“Our memory of Heather Davey brings a smile as we think about how gracious, friendly and kind she was to every person that she met.
“Harry West is a man who has engraved his name on our hearts as a man totally sold out to serve the Lord. There was no retirement for Harry. There were only different opportunities to serve the people around him and represent the Lord to each and every one.
“We thank God for both Heather and Harry for the difference they have made to our lives. We will remember them as we continue to worship in the Chapel each Sunday.”
Carol says Carinity Brookfield Green residents who cannot attend the chapel can watch and listen to services which are relayed live to their television.
Keyboard player Gordon Wallace performed several hymns at a recent dedication ceremony for the organ, which was attended by the Borgs and Heather Farquhar, the granddaughter of Harry West.
Jim Clinch from organ supplier All Organs Australia demonstrated the versatility of the instrument by performing a selection contemporary songs and popular show tunes.
