The organ has come through its first Holy Week and Easter with flying colours – with occasional moments of applause from ‘downstairs’! After a low key Palm/Passion Sunday we had a big improvisation for the Gloria on Maundy Thursday, the back to Lenten low key for the rest of the Mass and for Good Friday. At the Easter Vigil on a wet and windy Saturday night we had a few bars from the beginning of the Finale of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony to welcome the full organ back with a big flourish at the Gloria. At the Offertory, after the hymn, we had a lively improvisation based upon the Easter Alleluia and, at, at the end, Litanies by Jehan Alain.

On Sunday morning at Mass we had another lively improvisation at the Offertory, based on Victimae Paschali, with that Toccata (Widor) at the end.

On Monday we had a special Mass at St Osburgs for the Coventry Deanery in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a bitter-sweet occasion for me. Nice to be back at St Osburgs among some old friends, but shocked by the terrible state of the organ that I grew up with – for years one of the better organs in Coventry, and a major part of the liturgical and musical heritage of the Deanery and the Archdiocese. It is very sad that, now that the Church has been restored, the organ is now quite rapidly falling into decay – and in the year of its 50th anniversary.