Church music, organs and churches outside of the United States

I thought I would share some of the organ/congregation music I've found over the last year cruising youtube,
most are from Catholic churches.

Here's just a few to start with;

From a little church in Székelyszenterzsébet Romania (depicted in the attached screen shot,) the video description (and singing) are in Hungarian, but translated to English it says in part;

The 250-member church members of the 25 congregations of the Reformed Diocese of Odorheiu Secuiesc sang the songs of our celebrations together in November 2019, in Székelyszenterzsébet.

Everyone is so nicely dressed! the women and girls all wear traditional dresses and everyone of all ages sings with gusto, it looked like every seat available was occupied. The uploader has 6 videos up, I recognise one from the American hymnals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrE9M_OYUiQ


JKS 242 - Klaniame sa, tebe, Bože
(English: "We bow down, you God")

Filmed in;
Kostol Preblahoslavenej Panny Márie

(Parish church of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

located in Vráble, Slovakia, a small town of 8,700 people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqWfWGDIWJo



Same organist, different church, one that was undergoing exterior renovations which is why walls had canvas covering the lower portion!

This one is interesting because this organist's channel is devoted to preserving the music from this hymnal, and he asked the congregation for volunteers to stay after the service to sing so he could record some of the more obscure, not often played pieces from the book, and about HALF the pews were filled with volunteers who in their winter coats stayed and sang multiple hymns for his videos, and on multiple occasions!

In the village of Veľké Chyndice, local parishioners gathered in the church to contribute their songs to my database of songs from JKS. Several of each age group came. The fact that they like to sing is evidenced not only by the commitment with which they took part in the singing, but also by the sacrifice that some of them made - one lady apologized for her hour-long celebration for recording for an hour. Others from the participating family came to record, despite dealing with the death of a loved one at night. These people are not blaspheming by the decline of traditions, faith and our culture. They themselves are really involved in maintaining this faith and culture. He will not be discouraged, even if they have to sacrifice something for themselves. On the contrary - they will be happy to do it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqYj9ErRUlA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7EkCLnDYU

Same great organist on a fantastic organ in yet another church, located in Eliasovce Slovakia, here he is playing a hymn from the SzVU hymn book (Szent Vagy, Uram!) English: You are Holy! from Hungary.

Many of these churches date back to the 1700s and earlier, and have all mechanical tracker pipe organs that seem to be well maintained and lovingly cared for and kept in tune- they don't heat entire church buildings up the way we do, I learned they had piping on the backs of the pews in many of the buildings that circulate hot water to warm the people behind it! So in the winter videos the organist is usually wearing a winter coat and more, but that's not the case in this video as it's from early fall;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7EkCLnDYU

I enjoy his videos because every one of them is high quality in every way, and they also show some of the interiors.