I can’t say enough how much I fell in love with the Letourneau organ at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland. Over and over, as John Renke demonstrated the various stops, I couldn’t stop saying, “absolutely gorgeous!” The principals, flutes, strings, and reeds were all separately beautiful and the ensemble was well blended, all enhanced by the long reverberation.

Pure deliciousness.

I asked John when he was going to retire (since we were born in the same year) and he admitted that he is now working harder than ever before. This is truly a dream job for him and the facilities are magnificent, so I can imagine that he is torn.

This is such a massive facility—it covers two square city blocks, and about 150 people are at work here on any given day.

On John’s office computer he has a photo of his backyard as the desktop image.

He also took me on a tour of the choir library.

I was most interested in seeing this shoe rack—I thought at first they were organ shoes but they are black shoes for the choristers, some of whom wish to store them at the church.

Now I’m back to work at St. Mark’s Episcopal in Berkeley. We have finished sorting some 40-odd boxes and are ready to put them away, with an additional 15 boxes going out for recycling. Whew!