Not Every Christian Tradition Agreed the Organ Belonged in Church

The organ's dominance in Western Christian worship was never universal, and some traditions rejected instrumental music in worship altogether on theological grounds, holding that scripture authorises only unaccompanied human voice in praise, a position historically associated with several Reformed and Churches of Christ congregations, among others, whose services remain a cappella specifically because of this conviction rather than from any lack of access to instruments.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity likewise developed its liturgical music almost entirely without instrumental accompaniment, so the organ's central place in Western Christian devotional life has always been one strand of Christian musical practice rather than a universal Christian norm, a distinction the Cambridge Companion to the Organ addresses directly in situating the instrument's history specifically within the Western liturgical tradition. Where it is used, the organ occupies an unusually prominent physical and acoustic position within a church building, often built directly into the architecture itself, which is part of why organ building and church architecture have historically developed in close, continuous dialogue with one another.