Dr. John Weaver, a celebrated Presbyterian organist and composer, died Monday at the age of 83. His daughter, the Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, New York, described his passing in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning:
“Last night, in the small hours, Dad took his last breaths. It was the winding down of a clock, and we knew this moment was coming when the hands would stop moving; it was all peaceful and then came the dawn.”
“Surely,” to quote the hymn composed in 2000 by John Weaver and written by Fred R. Anderson for and about the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on the occasion of the rededication of its remodeled sanctuary, “the Lord is in this place.”
By intentionally combining its Sunday school and children’s choir programming into a new Sunday Club—an expanded, holistic 90-minute session on Sunday mornings for elementary-age children—First Presbyterian Church of Dallas hopes to involve many more children and families in its ministries of faith formation.
At least two and a half million people are trapped in modern-day slavery according to information released by the United Nations in 2015. One in four of those who are kidnapped, tricked or manipulated into some form of slavery such as forced labor, organ removal or prostitution is a child.