Lightning silences church organ

When the organist at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul arrived Thursday morning to fire up the grand wind instrument for a morning recital, nothing happened.

There was no breathy hum. The keyboard remained silent, the pipes mute, the stop action stopped.

Lightning had struck in the wee hours, frying some of the building's wiring.

Organist William Gudger had an hour and a half to spare before Louis Shirer, director of music ministries and organist at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Columbia, was to offer an hour-long Piccolo Spoleto recital, part of the L'Organo series sponsored by the Charleston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

"We're thankful to our colleagues down the street at St. Matthew's Lutheran, where we were able to relocate the recital," Gudger said.

The bolt from the black 2 a.m. sky rattled the midtown neighborhood, said Prioleau Alexander, the cathedral's director of operations. Besides knocking out the organ, it disabled the air conditioning, phones and Internet connection, though the alarm system still worked, he said.

An electrical engineer is on the way, and the church should be back in business within the next couple of days, Alexander said.

A Nebraska-based organ-repair company has been consulted to attend to the needs of the sanctuary's instrument, made by esteemed Canadian builder Gabriel Kney.

On Sunday, though, Gudger will have to step down from his high bench and assume a more modest post -- at the piano.

The show, after all, must go on.