‘It is God’s will’: Small-town parish receives big-time gift of music

Father Jerry Byrd, pastor of St. Mary Parish in North Vernon and St. Ann and St. Joseph parishes, both in Jennings County, blesses the new organ that St. Mary was able to purchase through a grant from the James P. Scott Endowment Fund of the Catholic Community Foundation of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Music Director Seth Jines is also pictured. (Submitted photo by Jennifer Lindberg)

By Jennifer Lindberg (Special to The Criterion)

NORTH VERNON—It’s a dream come true for a small-town parish.

Hoping to replace its deteriorating, nearly 90-year-old organ, St. Mary Parish in North Vernon recently received the powerhouse organ that was used in Lucas Oil Stadium to welcome more than 50,000 people at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July of 2024.

Today, the 51-stop Rodgers organ—with its swelling sounds—helps uplift the music and the spirits of the 350 people who attend Mass each weekend in the parish’s historic church.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence because everything is providence,” said Father Jerry Byrd, pastor of St. Mary Parish in North Vernon and St. Ann and St. Joseph parishes, both in Jennings County, of the new organ installed right before Holy Week. “At the end of the day, it is God’s will that we have it because we got it. One way or another, God willed us to have this organ.”

The organ was made possible with a $32,500 matching grant from the archdiocesan James P. Scott Endowment Fund managed by the archdiocese’s Catholic Community Foundation. When the parish’s music director Seth Jines found out the organ was for sale, he approached Father Byrd. But he was told the parish didn’t have the money to purchase it.

As a priest ministering at three parishes, Father Byrd was skeptical about getting the new organ due to the cost. He also thought he had a few years to think about it until he learned how quickly St. Mary’s previous organ was deteriorating.

“The keys would stick when you played them,” said parishioner Juanita McClellan, who played the old organ for 50 years at St. Mary.

The cloth wiring was also becoming a fire hazard, and Father Byrd saw that eventually he wouldn’t be able to get parts for the old organ.

Providence provided the archdiocesan grant and the generosity of parishioners who helped match the grant and installation costs. However, God’s will is also coming full circle for Jines, who was accepted into the full communion of the Church at the Easter Vigil in 2021.

Jines, a Protestant convert to Catholicism, first visited St. Mary’s to practice on the old 1936 organ, which came from a catalog and was intended for only funeral homes or small chapels.

At the time, he was working on his master’s degree in piano performance at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. St. Mary’s was the only place he knew that had an organ he could practice on in North Vernon. Soon, he was asked to help play the organ for Masses.

“I said sure,” Jines said. “I’d never been to [a Catholic Mass], but as I sat there and they sang the Gloria, the light got brighter and something said, ‘You are home.’ ”

That homecoming is coming full circle as Jines helped welcome other new Catholics at this year’s Easter Vigil. He said he was nervous to play the new organ for the first time during Holy Week and Easter—the most important Masses in the Church’s liturgical year.

“There’s a practical aspect that got me on the edge of my seat,” he said.

He also acknowledges how coming to St. Mary to practice the organ led to him becoming Catholic and helping obtain a fine organ for the parish.

“My entire philosophy is anything to just make it better for the next person,” he said. “You are not guaranteed tomorrow. Anything can happen … and I want to leave the music tradition [at St. Mary] in better shape than I found it.”

That’s because it’s about giving back to the community where Jines found his Catholic faith. The organ will help continue the tradition of music at St. Mary and last the church for generations.

The new organ is like having three organs in one, Jines said. It plays American Eclectic, German Baroque and French Romantic—all sounds that the old organ could not produce.

“You can do all that with this organ,” Jines said. “It’s so important because it really enhances the participation of parishioners. The whole point of the organ is to support the congregation, whether it’s singing together or a reflective period to set a mood.”

McClellan had mixed emotions about getting rid of the old organ—after all, she played it for half a century—but she agreed it is time for a new one.

“Good music makes an entirely different atmosphere,” McClellan said.

She compared it to going to the movies. You don’t always notice the music that plays and how it enhances the action, she said.

“But just wait until you are at an exciting scene and there’s no music,” McClellan said. “It makes all the difference to that movie. I think the same is true in our church. Good and beautiful music really enhances the liturgy.”

Father Byrd, who has an undergraduate degree in musical performance, wants his parishioners to understand the importance of the new organ in light of Catholic musical tradition.

“I hope it will be inspiring to them,” he said. “A lot of people can seem indifferent, not caring one way or another, but it is important that we care about these things and how it connects us with tradition.”

Music is part of the Church’s tradition for a very important reason, he continued.

“It assists our celebration of our worship of God,” Father Byrd said. “We don’t have liturgical music for our sake. It’s about entering a deeper experience and expression of worship through music.”
 

(Jennifer Lindberg is a freelance writer and a member of St. Mary Parish in North Vernon.) †