What do Pickering Ontario and York Landing Manitoba have in common? Consider music. Or a legacy.

The distance to York Landing isn't measured in miles. Instead, travellers count the hours. The Toronto to Winnipeg jet takes 2:45 hours. Winnipeg north to Thompson takes another 1:45 on a smaller plane. From Thomson north to Split Lake it's gravel road for approximately 100 miles and another two hours or more. Finally there's the ferry, the MV "Joe Keeper", a free ride taking three hours from Split Lake to York Landing.

Split Lake is a bulge in the Nelson River as it meanders northward from lake Winnipeg to empty the contents of the Saskatchewan River into Hudson's Bay. Split Lake is also one of two villages, both with the same name and separated by 30 miles of lake, rock and muskeg. That's 30 miles as the crow flies. One village is on the gravel road to Thompson, the other is on the Hudson's Bay Railway to Churchill and neither is connected by road to York Landing, midway between the two.

I found out about York Landing at the regular meeting of Canada Lodge No. 532 in Pickering. A visiting brother from Scotland, Stewart Lyon, wanted to see a second degree. Canada Lodge had one scheduled, so we went visiting.

The Pickering temple is an old Quaker meeting house just east of the heart of the village. The hall trustees have preserved the exterior. Recent renovations have raised the ceilings to let in more light from two-storey windows. As part of the restoration, "antiuque" steel ceiling tiles were installed in the banquet hall. The lodge room has a gallery and organ loft in the west. The Quaker Burial Grounds just across the street add to the rural atmosphere and the tombstones give a folk history of the early residents.

The old Quakers had a foot in both worlds. The secular and the spiritual blended for a balanced life. Strict Quakers believed in "making a joyful noise unto the Lord", but without musical instruments and definitely without church organs, which were deemed worldly and a detraction from worship.

As we sat in their old meeting hall the minutes of the previous meeting were read by the secretary.

The organ had arrived in York Landing, we were informed. This was confirmed by Brother Hugh Strange who had travelled there.

Organ? York Landing? I wanted to learn more.

York landing isn't readily accessible, but it is faithful. The community has 450 residents and St.Dunstan's mission church has 450 parishioners. That's hardly enough to sustain a fulltime clergyman. Lay members conduct the regular services of worship, but for Holy Communion, the reception of members and weddings, a preacher comes in.

Some members of Canada Lodge who are members of an Anglican parish in Pickering have been visiting St.Dunstan's for five years. They make the long trip north to cement the relationship and some members of the York Landing congregation have visited the Toronto area. Last summer, eight southerners discovered there was one thing that St.Dunstan's longed for, for almost as much as their own minister. They loved music and, hope-beyond-hope, if only they could afford an organ! But their yearnings exceeded their budget.

By coincidence, Canada Lodge just happened to have a spare one. They'd had it for four years. Ina Shale, the widow of Bro. Horace Shale, was moving into a retirement residence. Horace had been long-time organist for Canada Lodge. Now that he was gone, would they accept a gift of his home electric organ? The only stipulation was that the lodge had to pick it up.

It was compact electronic, and operational and not the type of gift to be turned down. But the temple already had a more modern organ, a keyboard that was kept in the Eastern Star cupboard and brought out when needed. So the donated organ sat mute for four years in storage until the call from the wild.

Packing and shipping were costly, more than $600, but Horace's organ was being recommissioned in a new home. Then they awaited news of its safe arrival.

"The organ has arrived in good shape," the message from York Landing told the lodge," except for two broken legs, the front ones, which we can repair."

As we listened to the report in lodge, my eyes wandered to the gallery in the west. There, adorned with ornate wood carving, sat another organ, the one that stayed at home. It didn't have speakers or even an electric plug. All it needed was two sturdy legs to push the pedals that pumped air through the reeds, truly a technological innovation for the old Quaker Meeting House.

I was tempted to see if it still worked.

Displaced by the modern electronic keyboard, it too is redundant, awaiting a new home.

Any takers?