Abbey Wood, London SE2
on Thursday, 25 October 2018
Background: This funeral, attended mainly by worshippers from the Nigerian Pentecostal 'Triumphant Church International', London N15, was one of the most joyful and spontaneous Klaus has ever played at. He loved the warm-hearted and enthusiastic congregation, even though it placed enormous demands on his skills and responsiveness as an organist. Many organists would rather have been in the coffin than at the keyboard.
But Klaus thrives on adventure and enthusiastic ( = intoxicated with the spirit of God) congregations. The divine chaos which prevaled at this funeral was in the spirit of the first Pentecost, which was so chaotic that the apostles were suspected of having had one too many (Acts 2:13). 'The wind bloweth where it listeth' (John 3:8), and so does the Holy Spirit.
On the evening before the funeral, Klaus attended the three-hour celebratory service at the mother church in London N15, agreed with the choir which three hymns were to be sung and to which tunes, rehearsed them with the choir, and pencilled down the tunes of a selection of Praise-and-Worship songs which were not available on paper.
On Thursday morning, 15 minutes before the official start of the service, a woman arrived who claimed to be 'the organist'. She did not manage to unseat Klaus since he, as is his custom, had arrived 90 minutes early: 'Possession is nine points of the law.'
Nobody can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), but an Anglican chaplain from the hospice turned up in addition to the Pentecostal pastor.
The service started 15 minutes late. And then the wind did start blowing where it listed.
The hymns were not announced, the congregation started singing when they wanted, what they wanted and at whatever pitch. Klaus had to figure out instantly which hymns they had started singing, play them from memory and at whatever pitch the congregation had started, not every organist's cup of tea. The image of the Commander imperturbably witnessed this storm in a tea-cup.
The priest and the pastor were both 'pre-siding' (= sitting in front), but nobody was actively in charge of proceedings.
The service had been announced to last for two hours but turned out to be much shorter. After the priest had blessed the coffin, the coffin bearers should have taken the coffin to the hearse and to the burial site. But they were nowhere to be found, since the service was much shorter than predicted. So Klaus and the congregation filled in another 20 minutes with impromptu hymns, 'with hearts and hands and voices', until the coffin bearers had been found.
This is definitely Klaus' cup of tea, and he loved the spirit of this service.
On 30 October 2018, Klaus received an email from Father Herbert, the Anglican priest:
Dear Dr Bung,
Thanks for coping with the most dis-ordered funeral service I have ever attended. You did very well. Everybody was not sure of what was going on. The order of service was not suited for the service in the chapel, and no direction from the front. I am sure they should have made arrangements with the funeral directors as to how long the service was to last, but it seems that was not so, because the service was only 45 mins long. But thank God it all went well, and we will be in touch.
Many thanks
Father Herbert
On 7 November 2018, Pastor Gloria Ekeng, widow of the deceased Naval Commander Joseph Ekeng, submitted the following review to Klaus' account at www.lastminutemusicians.com:
Name: Pastor Gloria Ekeng
Organisation: Funeral
Rating: 10/10
Review:
Klaus played at my husband's funeral service. He was excellent, full of compassion, has a great understanding of a solemn service and took extra time to practise and set up. I am happy to recommend his service highly to anyone who may require such.
