For generations, Lutherans have gathered their voices in song. On Sunday, Oct. 18, Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Carmel, Indiana, will celebrate that tradition with a special Reformation Celebration Hymn Festival featuring organist Matthew Wachtman.
The festival is part of Pilgrim’s annual Pilgrim Fine Arts Series, made possible through the Rev. Dr. Paul & Aletha Schumacher Music Fund, established by their children in loving memory of their parents. The Rev. Dr. Paul Schumacher is a former pastor of Pilgrim Lutheran Church.
Neither solely a performance nor a worship service, a hymn festival invites musicians, choirs and those gathered to participate together. This festival, crafted by Wachtman, celebrates the reformative work of Martin Luther through his hymns and tunes while incorporating music from Christian communities around the world.
Using the church year as its framework, the festival will move from the Reformation through Advent and the major festivals of the church year to Holy Trinity. Organ, piano, flute, percussion and choir will help bring the hymns and their texts to life, offering new ways to experience familiar music alongside hymns participants may be discovering for the first time.
Wachtman is an active organist from Defiance, Ohio, who currently serves as Director of Music and Worship at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Archbold, Ohio. There, he oversees a vibrant music program, conducts the chancel choir and curates the congregation’s concert series. He was recently appointed Education Coordinator for the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and also serves as Sub-Dean of the Toledo Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Wachtman has previously led a similar hymn festival at Christ Lutheran Church in Kokomo, Indiana, where the program was warmly received. His approach brings together congregational singing and instrumental music to help familiar hymns take on new life while introducing participants to music they may not have encountered before.
For Pilgrim, the festival also celebrates a tradition at the heart of its congregational life: singing together. It is an opportunity to share the beauty of hymnody with the wider community and experience voices from different places, cultures and centuries joining together in faith.
The Reformation Celebration Hymn Festival begins at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, at Pilgrim Lutheran Church, 3650 W. 106th St., Carmel, Indiana.
