July/August 2005

The music of change: Peggy Lehrecke’s evolving life
of service in the church

BY NICOLE SEIFERTH

Margaret “Peggy” Lehrecke has been the organist at St. Paul’s Church, Spring Valley for 42 years. While it might sound like a long time to hold one job, it’s also been a front row seat to witness and participate in the evolution of a parish and the church.

Lehrecke took up her work at St. Paul’s after receiving her master’s degree from the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary. Although she didn’t become an Episcopalian until she was an adult, she says she’s not surprised she eventually found her way to the Episcopal Church. Growing up in the Bronx during the Depression, Lehrecke recalls that all her neighborhood friends were Roman Catholic and that they often “played church” together.

“They had bells, they had color and it was quite a contrast to the grim, Presbyterian parish where my father was pastor,” she says. “They knew how to celebrate and love their lives. I think I had the feeling even then that there was a liturgical happiness out there somewhere for me.”

Her father left parish ministry while Lehrecke was still a child to work with the Federal Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches. By the time World War II was raging in Europe, he was working actively for of the World Council of Churches. It was a role that was to have an enormous impact on his daughter’s life. Among other things, it was because of her father’s acquaintance with the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer that Lehrecke met her future husband while working in Berlin.

Her time there, just four years after the end of the war, made an indelible impression on Lehrecke. She worked with the World Council of Churches to support the student Christian movements. As an American, she had access to the Eastern Zone of Germany, where western Berlin citizens were not allowed. The first “apartment” she shared with her new husband was in the Bonhoeffer home and was the room the famous theologian, himself, was living in when he was arrested by the SS.

“My experience in Germany was colored by the people with whom I worked who were very much involved in what was called the kirchen kampf, the church struggle to remain a witnessing church underground during the Hitler years.”

It is little surprise, then, that Lehrecke has, since that time, had a lasting interest in peace and social justice issues. In the past, she has worked with the national Episcopal Peace and Justice Network and currently is chair of the Peace and Justice Task Force of the diocesan Social Concerns Commission. At St. Paul’s, she has also recently taken on the role of administrative coordinator for the Jornaleros Project, which ministers daily to the large migrant day-laborer population in Spring Valley.

Germany also introduced her to a different way of approaching music. “The Germans learn to sing, they learn to appreciate music,” she says. “Young people have the music of their generation, but they’re bilingual; they also have learned in school how to sing and how to read music. There’s not that kind of generational divide that we have here in terms of classical versus popular music.”

That kind of openmindedness has served Lehrecke well in her work at St. Paul’s. She has seen her congregation evolve from a nearly all-white suburban parish to its present incarnation as a diverse, vibrant community of people from the Caribbean, Africa and beyond. She recalls that, as with any transition, there were some difficult moments. At a funeral service years ago a young girl in the congregation stood up, uninvited, and sang an a capella gospel hymn. St. Paul’s then-rector, who had not been consulted, was not pleased. “He said, ‘Peggy, this is not St. Paul’s.’ I replied, ‘Yes, Father, it is St. Paul’s.’ That’s our future – we’ve got to include the experience and the language of all our people.”

The congregation has grown steadily more diverse throughout the years; a diversity that is both a gift and a challenge to the parish’s liturgists. “Among [parishioners], although most are from the Islands, we also have a half-dozen African countries represented,” she says. “And every single one of those groups brings different needs and different traditions. For all of them transplanted, the Anglican roots are something which they look to for a feeling of continuity. So we have to combine the exciting new prophetic stuff with things that connect them with their beloved traditions.”

In her early years at St. Paul’s, Lehrecke often performed Bach cantatas with an orchestra during services. When asked if she misses those days, her response is succinct, “Times change.” Lehrecke appreciates how the ethnic diversity of the parish has influenced the music.

“I tell you, it’s lots of fun. We have music not only from the ’82 Hymnal, but also from Lift Every Voice and Sing every Sunday and, occasionally, from Wonder, Love and Praise. It is certainly my conviction that every person, from whatever background, should have at least one piece of liturgical music every week that really grabs them in the gut, that really speaks to them.”

Although the church is clearly takes up the majority of Lehrecke’s time, she points out that during her time at St. Paul’s she also raised a family and, for 30 years, was a high school teacher. During her teaching career, she taught German, English, music and religion. Among her former students she counts a vice president of CNN, an editor of The New Yorker and one very famous singer/actress. “I’ll never forget being accosted by Tyne Daly one day on 5th Ave.,” Lehrecke recalls. “Tyne grabbed her then-husband, rushed over to me and said, ‘This is Mrs. Lehrecke. She changed my life.’ Such nice memories, nicht wahr?”