Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Memorial Chapel of the Holy Communion [Defunct]

Denomination: Episcopal

Organ: Allen (Gyrophonic with Radio Tubes)

Last Service:  ---

Presider: Rev. James Littrel / Multiple Interims

Historic Picture of the Memorial Chapel

Anwering an advertisement in a local newspaper looking for an organist, I showed up on a rainy Sunday morning at the address for the given for the Memorial Chapel of the Holy Communion (Episcopal) church. The neighborhood in the southwest section of Philadelphia was a challenged neighborhood with boarded up houses and buildings falling down along the street. But when I walked into the sanctuary of the Chapel, with the dark mahogony pews and flying buttresses, the tiffany stain glass windows, the red carpet down the center aisle up to the high alter, the cold, rainy day receded behind me. The santuary was warm and had a warm hue. This is where I would spend the next several years serving this congregation in music and where they served my spirit through the good works that they performed in this neighbohood.

The Memorial Chapel of the Holy Communion was the last of seven satellite churches supported by the massive Episcopal church of Holy Apostles and Mediator (52nd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia). The Rev. James Littrel was the rector (actually Vicar - since this was a satellite church). He served through much of my time at the chapel. After his departure, the diocese had a difficult time finding someone to become a priest at this small failing church. For many years, the chapel had long-term interims that would stay a few months, sometimes up to a year. In the end, when the congregation had fallen to just a handful of congregants, the diocese closed the Memorial Chapel of the Holy Communion.

The organ at the chapel wasn't that impressive. It was a 1970s Allen Gyrophonic two manual instrument. There was a room behind the organ console that held towers and towers of radio tubes. When I turned on the organ all the radio tubes would start to glow and hum quietly. The organ was called a gyrophonic because the organ created the tremolo effect by actually spinning the speakers around and around. In the summer, when it was extra warm in the tower chamber, the wood of the speakers would swell and the wood would rythmically click as it rubbed against itself. Needless-to-say, I rarely used the tremolo (and even now, I am not a fan of tremolos). I wish that that small chapel in southwest Philadelphia was still standing for its quiet, restful sanctuary - both noun and adjective.