Rosemary Crow — “Weave”

It took some googling, poking around and sleuthing to find out about this talented woman.  I finally tracked her down and interviewed her by phone this month.   She was born in New Jersey, the daughter of a commercial airline pilot, but moved to Florida as an infant and raised in the Methodist church.  However, after she got to Salem College in Winston-Salem North Carolina, she became enamored of the liturgy of the Episcopal Church and remains a faithful member today.  She got a degree in music and a Master’s degree in education followed by a long career teaching music in public schools.  She combined her love of music and church by directing church choirs in her Episcopal church in Asheville, North Carolina.  Today, she is retired and spends half the year in Asheville, and the other half in Florida.

“Weave” is a beautiful ecumenical song written in 1979.  She said when her home church got a new rector from Australia, he was obviously new and different.  In his first sermon he said that he felt God led him to them and the rector was waiting to see how God would weave their lives together.  That sermon, plus the Quaker sharing of the peace, “The Christ in me greets the Christ in thee” inspired the song.   When three branches of the Lutheran church merged, they used this song as a theme.  Shortly thereafter, the Girl Scouts adopted it as a song.   The 1984 Girl Scout/Girl Guides world conference in New York used it as their theme song.  The hymn is in their songbook as well as in the Chalice Hymnal used by the Disciples of Christ.   Upon listening to it, I think it would make a haunting round suitable for any denomination open to the love of God found in each person.