St Edmund (RC), Millwall
Note: This church has no organ but only an electric piano. Klaus played there for Christmas 2014 and brought his own keyboard and amplifier/loudspeaker. He played again for Easter 2015.
A member of the Christmas congregation send the following e-mail:
'Well done, Klaus. I learnt you were the organist at the mass of Christmas day, at St Edmund’s Catholic Church, Millwall London. You turned the church into a cathedral.
God bless, Kingsley Nnaji'
The Parish priest, Father John Elliott, wrote in an email:
From: John B Elliott
Sent: 11 March 2015 10:43Dear Klaus
You have an endearingly innocent view of the demands on a parish priest's time! Immediately after Christmas come the year-end accounts; after that is the Octave for Christian Unity and the 2015 budget with the accompanying meetings of the Finance Committee and the Parish Pastoral Council; then we are into Lent with Stations of the Cross twice a week and a 5-session course on 'Teach Us To Pray'. Around that we have started the Confirmation course, had two deaths, eight baptisms and 21 couples have approached us about getting married - and we are only 10 weeks into the year. Oh, and I have also taken over as Deanery Secretary. And again Oh, the Conference of Bishops has introduced a nation-wide programme of evangelisation (with, of course, the work being done by the parishes).
Katherine has been in touch about which services at Easter we would like to have you play. I attach the order of service for The Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. I do not yet have the final version for the Easter Vigil, but the hymns will be:
Take our bread, we ask you
Now the green blade riseth
The Lord's my shepherd
Jesus Christ is risen today, alleluia!The exultet will be sung a cappella.
I meant it when I said that you played an important role in making the Christmas services good. That was primarily because, without you, there would have been no music and that would seriously impoverish the liturgy. We have this problem at the great feasts that many of our parishioners, because they are immigrants, return home for the holiday. You took considerable care to make sure you knew the music specified and how it fitted appropriately into the liturgy. You are an experienced musician and the incidental music was good for purpose; it was a nice idea to choose hymns familiar to the Polish community as the background music and it was appreciated by the relatively few Poles who were present. It certainly gave an extra dimension to the liturgy to have an organ sound rather than merely an electric piano. Having said that, I have offered to provide equipment to deliver that on a regular basis but there has been so little response from the Music group that I have abandoned the idea in this year's budget.
I hope Katherine has explained to you that I shall be leaving the church immediately after the end of the 11am Mass on Easter Sunday, so it will not be possible to allow you an hour to clear away after the Mass; if that means not bringing your own equipment, so be it.
Peace and prayers
John'