Arlington church pieces together new wind pipe organ

ARLINGTON, Va. - Have you ever tried putting together a 500,000-piece puzzle? How about one that costs more than a million dollars?

Well, that’s pretty much what one church in Northern Virginia just did.

"We called the old organ ‘Old Wheezy’ because it would hiss and wheeze, and its blower was louder than the HVAC at that time," laughed Ben Keseley, the minister of music at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Arlington. 

He proudly showed FOX 5 the church’s new organ Thursday.

It was a long time coming.

"The truck pulled up on a Sunday after church," Keseley explained, "and several St. Georgians lined up outside down the sidewalk and everyone carried in a pipe or a part and filled the whole naïve."

SUBSCRIBE TO FOX 5 DC ON YOUTUBE

The pieces had arrived from Roy, Washington, nearly 3,000 miles away. Martin Pasi spent two years building every single piece.

"That’s why we call them opuses because they’re all original," Pasi explained. "There’s not a second one ever."

The Austrian-born organ builder stayed in Arlington for more than two months to reassemble the organ. That includes blowing into the individual pipes to make sure they sound just right.

"It’s a pure feeling really, an intuitive process. You know I don’t really think that much when I do it," he said.

The new organ will officially debut to the public Friday.

"The ministry of music is one that is deeply meaningful here," Keseley said. "It touches people, it inspires them to be better people, better Christians, and it also helps us sing in our worship even better than we could with old wheezy."

For more information about the public debut, you can click here.