Journey of Hope UMC to be next stop on Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour

The next stop on the 2025-26 Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour will be Sunday, Nov. 16, at Journey of Hope United Methodist Church in Elgin.

The instrument featured is the church’s combination 1961 Casavant pipe and Allen digital organ, with a performance by Dr. Jeff Neufeld, music director at First Congregational Church and coordinator of the tour.

The concert will begin at 4 p.m. at the church, on the northwest corner of Highland Avenue and Randall Road. Admission is free, and a freewill offering will be taken to support Journey of Hope’s music ministry.

The Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour is a series of free concerts, begun in 2024, showcasing Elgin’s and the surrounding area’s many unique pipe organs.

The concerts feature local organists and the host church’s own musicians, and program content varies from formal organ repertoire, to chamber ensembles, to hymn-sings.

The mission of the series is to revive interest in the pipe organ, open up new performance venues, and provide an affordable concert experience to the community.

Freewill offerings are taken at each concert to benefit the host church’s programs and ministries, but additional, general donations to support the organ tour or sponsor guest instrumentalists can be made to First Congregational Church.

In the new year, the tour will be coming to East Dundee for the first time. The concert will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 310 E. Main St. in East Dundee.

For more information, visit fcc-elgin.org/organ-tour or contact Neufeld through the church office.