Every now and then, when the subject of Channing-Murray comes up in conversation at UUCUC, someone will bring up “the organ.” This is sometimes done with a head-shake or heaven-ward glance. Occasionally, there might be a rueful chuckle or down-turned mouth. It’s clear, even to people – like me – who haven’t been attending UUCUC long enough to know first-hand the history between the two liberal religious bodies in Champaign-Urbana, that there are FEELINGS about the organ.

Having prowled through boxes and boxes of church history, I now know a fair amount about the origins of those unspoken expressions about the organ that now resides at the front of our sanctuary. I have no wish to stir up controversy on the subject and so will draw the veil over the late-Twentieth Century wrangling over the instrument, except to say that UUCUC paid Channing-Murray $13,500 for the organ in 1990.

It seems safe, though, to tell about how the organ came to be a focal point in the Unitarian Church. This report is from an early history of the church, produced by Ethel Forbes Scott.

Rexford Newcomb, University of Illinois, Class of 1911, was a teacher, writer, and lecturer in architecture. In 1918, he was appointed professor in the U of I Department of Architecture and later the Dean of the College of Fine Arts. Professor Rexford was also a member of the Unitarian Church in Urbana. 

Concerning the organ, he wrote, “In the spring of 1911, I was asked to make tentative sketches for the treatment of the chancel, including space for an organ. Accordingly, I made the necessary measurements and, as time allowed, made suggestive studies. I spent that summer in Portage, Wisconsin, but sent to Mr. Vail [Albert Vail, pastor of the Urbana Unitarian Church] sketches embodying what I proposed as the final solution. In the absence of an altar and reredos in Unitarian churches, I featured the organ as the dominant motif. These sketches, so Mr. Vail wrote me, Dr. Forbes [Stephen A. Forbes, President, Board of Trustees, Urbana Unitarian Church] took to St. Louis when he visited the organ manufacturers. In the fall of 1911, I removed to California and did not see the finished work until I was called to the University faculty in 1918. Imagine my delight when I noted how closely my basic suggestion had been realized!”