The sound of one pipe organ gives a congregation an inner heavenly glow, but the tones of two of the majestic musical beasts can levitate the soul into the clouds.

That’s the experience that will be on hand during a special event honoring the 125th anniversary of Immanuel Lutheran Church.

The church’s two pipe organs — one in the sanctuary and one that has the title of Colorado’s largest theater organ in the school gymnasium — will be the stars of the show.

A Liturgical Hymn Fest with the sanctuary organ, followed by a classic silent movie with accompaniment by the theater organ, will be held Sunday, April 26, at 846 E. Pikes Peak Ave. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Hymn Fest starts at 2 p.m., and a showing of the 1925 silent comedy “Seven Chances,” directed by and starring Buster Keaton, will begin at 4 p.m. in the gym next door.

A guest musician, acclaimed classical and theater organist Benjamin Kolodziej of Texas, will perform at each.

“Our music director contacted him and barely got the request out of his mouth before Benjamin said yes, he wanted to be a part of our 125th anniversary celebration,” said Karl H. Fruendt, president of the church’s foundation.

Traditional sacred hymns will emanate from the sanctuary’s powerful pipe organ during the spirited performance and sing-along.

Religious favorites from the early 1900s and on will fill the church, as choirs from six other Lutheran churches in the area will join in what Music Director Donald Zimmerman calls “choral unity” in the community.

Immanuel Lutheran acquired the sanctuary organ in 2005, when First Lutheran Church in downtown Colorado Springs bought a new pipe organ and gave away their old one, Zimmerman said.

The sanctuary organ was built in 1962 and seems to feel at home in its present site, he added.

Standard pipe organs date back 1,000 years.

While “electronic imitations do a pretty good job, you can’t beat the sound of a pipe organ, which is a sustaining instrument,” Zimmerman said. “Our congregation sings very well because of that.”

He estimates the church pipe organ would cost about $1 million to replace.

After the Hymn Fest, “Seven Chances,” a nearly one-hour, six-reel feature film with subtitles, will be shown in the school gym.

In facing bankruptcy, the main character learns he will claim a fortune from his grandfather if he marries by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday. His quest to do that unfolds and culminates with a daring and hilarious stunt sequence.

Kolodziej, who works as choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dallas and is also the organist at Southern Methodist University, where he plays for 100 weddings a year, will provide a live, improvised soundtrack to the silent film on the theater organ.

He’ll recreate the authentic “golden age” cinematic atmosphere on Immanuel Lutheran’s legendary “Mighty Kremer Wonder Organ” that craftsman Joel Kremer spent decades building.

The behemoth was gifted to the church in 2011 by the late Colorado Springs resident Dave Weesner, Fruendt said.

A member of the Pikes Peak Area Theatre Organ Society, Weesner purchased the organ after Kremer died in 2000, and used it as a personal instrument before donating it.

“We made a great decision to bring that organ and put it on the stage of our parochial school,” Fruendt said.

The parochial school closed in 2009. “But we still had the building and thought this would be a great place for the organ, and we’ve been able to keep it going,” he said.

About 3,000 silent-film theater organs were produced between 1910 and 1940 and became fixtures in movie theaters until sound technology developed, according to the American Theatre Organ Society.

Immanuel Lutheran’s instrument has roughly 2,500 pipes, a four-keyboard, horseshoe-shaped console and an array of built-in percussion effects mimicking orchestral instruments and sounds including drums, whistles and bells.

“That is huge for theater organs,” Zimmerman said. “We’ve got a monster in our gym.”

Immanuel Lutheran has presented several silent film events. One of the hits was a showing of the 1925 film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” for students at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.

The school has a connection to Lon Chaney, a notable actor in the era of silent films. Chaney’s parents worked there as administrators.

Chaney was born in Colorado Springs in 1883, and did construction and performed on local stages before making it big in Hollywood and becoming known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces.”

Immanuel Lutheran Church was formally founded in 1901, when it gained membership in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. The dedication was held in 1903 at the church that founders built at Wahsatch Avenue and Boulder Street.

Called German Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel’s Church in the early 1900s, it operated one of the city’s first Christian day schools.

Immanuel Lutheran Church moved to its present property in 1940. The campus spans for half a city block at East Pikes Peak Avenue and Institute Street. The adjacent school is leased to Pikes Peak Academy, for students at-risk of dropping out.

The congregation of about 350 members is one of 13 Lutheran churches in the greater Colorado Springs area. Fruendt describes the Missouri Synod as a conservative, very liturgical denomination that offers both traditional and contemporary styles of divine services.

Anniversary events continue with a church picnic in June and final 125th services and a dinner in August.