The Schantz/Muller organ at St. Peter Lutheran Church, Macomb, MI.

Thought you might be interested in hearing "the rest of the story".  
The Schantz organ was removed from Our Saviour
Lutheran Church in the late 1980s.  It was placed in storage in Ann
Arbor, MI by the Michigan District (LCMS) Church Extension Fund Board.
They let it be known that the instrument was available for purchase by
any LCMS congregation in Michigan.  When St. Peter's began consideration
to build a new sanctuary in the late 1990s they became aware of the
availability of the Schantz organ and purchased it in 1999 for $35,000.
The building of the new sanctuary was delayed time and time again.
Finally in the spring of 2004 it was decided to contract with the Muller
Organ Co. (for about $235,000) to remove the organ from storage and
proceed to rebuild and enlarge it.  That process was completed in
November, 2004 but unfortunately, due to more delays, ground breaking on
the new sanctuary had only taken place in August 2004 and the building
was of course nowhere near ready for the installation of the organ.  So
the organ went into storage again and remained there for all of calendar
year 2005.  (Interestingly enough, the console was moved to the church
and was on display in the choir room!)  The sanctuary was eventually
completed and the 1st service held there in mid December 2005 accompanied
by a rental electronic organ.  Installation of the Schantz-Muller organ
began in late January 2006 and was completed in early April in time for
Easter!  The dedication of the new organ took place on June 11, 2006. 

The new sanctuary is a large space, seating about 800 on the main floor
with room for about 300 in the rear gallery.  The building is wider than
it is long (front to back) and sits in the traditional east/west (altar
facing east, narthex to the west) orientation.  The organ is placed so
that it speaks to the long axis - north/south in this case - with the
main organ on the south wall and the antiphonal on the north wall.  The
room is somewhat live - about 2 second reverb when empty - and the organ
sounds magnificent in the building.  Fortunately, St. Peter's has a very
competent organist who uses the instrument to it's full potential.  I had
the pleasure of singing with the St. Peter's choir on Christmas Eve 2006
- a grand experience!  There were about 700 people in attendance at that
service (there were 4 Christmas Eve services that afternoon/evening).
The congregation is one of the largest in the Lutheran Church -  Missouri
Synod with nearly 3,000 members and boasts the largest private grade
school in the state of Michigan with about 500 students. 

So --- for less than a $300,000 expenditure, the Schantz organ takes on
another life at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Macomb, MI.  What a
wonderful "fate" for a marvelous instrument!

Cheers -

Doug  

[Received from Douglas W. Craw via e-mail May 2007]