WARREN Family donates organ to fire-damaged church

The church has not decided if it will rebuild.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The sounds of hymns and prayer should rise from Austin Village Baptist Church by Easter, with accompaniment from an organ donated by a Girard family.
Work on the damaged classroom wing of the church continues since an August fire devastated the sanctuary.
Collapsing roof timbers destroyed nearly everything in the sanctuary, including the piano and organ. The fire did more than $350,000 damage to the church, which had attracted 60 worshipers each Sunday.
The sanctuary was so badly damaged it had to be demolished.
Newspaper story: "We were trying to figure out what we were going to do with the organ when we saw the story in The Vindicator," said Findley Boyd III of Girard, who took up playing the family organ as a child.
"We thought they could probably use it."
The Boyd family purchased the Lowry organ 14 years ago and Findley, 30, became proficient enough to play a few times in a local church, but as he aged, he gave up the organ for rock and roll and now plays keyboards.
The instrument, which cost thousands of dollars new, will be put to good use when church members are able to return to their building, church officials said.
Construction: Services are now being conducted in Turner Middle School in Warren, while construction continues to make the classroom wing of the church habitable.
"We have lots of song and prayer in the services," said Fred Ricer, the pastor. "Music is a very important part of worship."
Church members have not yet decided whether to rebuild the sanctuary, which they had remodeled and improved over the last several years.
Within the next several months, the congregation hopes to begin meeting in a room that had been the fellowship hall.
"We are just going to meet there until the Lord tells us what he wants us to do," Ricer said.
siff@vindy.com