Westminster Presbyterian Church seeks a Praise Band Director to direct all music activity at its 9 a.m. contemporary worship service each Sunday. Skills include singing and playing an instrument. Candidate must have a vibrant faith along with experience singing, playing an instrument (preferably piano) and directing singers and musicians in worship. This is a part-time position, up to 10 hours a week. Salary commensurate with experience. Please send resume to Pastor Wes Nordman at pastor@wesminsac.org
For 150 years, Westminster has distinguished itself with high-quality music, musicians, and musical instruments. When many churches had only a piano or reed organ, Westminster’s first church building (completed in about 1866 and located at 6th & L Streets in downtown Sacramento) had a small, hand-pumped pipe organ.
The second home of Westminster Presbyterian Church (completed in about 1904 and located at 13th & K Streets) had a larger pipe organ with impressive façade pipes.
The current home of Westminster (completed in 1927 and located at 13th & N Streets across from Capitol Park) was originally equipped with a 28-rank Reuter pipe organ; in 1979 a new console was installed, and in 1983 a major expansion was completed by the M. P. Möller Organ Company. More recent additions include: 8′ state trumpet, 32′ contra bourdon, 32′ contra bombarde, and new swell reeds. Future additions include: gallery 8′ festival trumpet; gallery 8′, 4′, 2′ principal and mixture; redesigned swell division; new solid-state console.
As Westminster enters it’s 150th year, exciting plans are evolving to continue our tradition of musical excellence and service to the greater Sacramento community. (See photos of our recently installed 26″ church bell.) You are invited to celebrate the joy with us!
Speaking within one of the finest acoustics in all of Sacramento, the grand sanctuary pipe organ contributes a wide range of spiritual moods to the traditional worship services, to weddings, and to memorials: from ethereal and meditative, to grand and majestic. The Moller also serves as a concert instrument for Music At Noon and special community events. The current home of Westminster (completed in 1927 and located at 13th & N Streets across from Capitol Park) was originally equipped with a 28-rank Reuter pipe organ.
This Kimball pipe organ was moved to the First Presbyterian Church in Ukiah, California, in 1929. In the 1960’s it was moved to the new sanctuary. Here’s something we found on the Internet:
The copy below this July 14, 1974 Sacramento Bee photo reads:
Although this building was torn down in 1926, the stained glass windows on the left will look familiar to some Sacramentans because they are presently in the Westminster Presbyterian Church at 13th and N Streets. This picture ws taken in the early 1920’s in the old Westminster Church which was at [13th] and K Streets…
An old photograph [now missing] shows a tiny console in the old wooden church, about the size of an upright piano, with a few small pipes sticking out behind the choir loft. At the right of the instrument is a black screen, hiding the person who stood there, pumping air into the windchest to keep up the pressure as the organist played, and as the congregation sang “We gather together… .”
