I have been very thankful for the generosity of John Dalles in sharing his unpublished texts with me. I discovered his published texts while I was serving at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, NY, making use of them on several different occasions. After moving to Orlando, I was delighted to discover that he resides in the area. We first met after the local AGO chapter held an event at the church where he serves. Since then, he has been kind enough to share several of his texts with me. As you can read in his biography below, it was a great pleasure for me to discover such a wonderful hymn writer here in my back yard.
A Presbyterian minister and hymn writer, John Dalles has served as Pastor of Wekiva Presbyterian Church, Longwood FL since 1997. He is a graduate of Penn State, Lancaster Seminary (M.Div.) and Pittsburgh Seminary (D.Min.). Before Wekiva, he served Fox Chapel Presbyterian in Pittsburgh (1986-1997) and First Presbyterian, South Bend (1982-1986). Author of more than 800 hymn texts, John’s “Come, O Spirit” and “God Bless Your Church” are in the Presbyterian Hymnal. His hymns are also in: The New Century Hymnal, The Moravian Book of Worship, Worship Together, The Covenant Hymnal, The Book of Praise (Presbyterian Church in Canada) and The Australian Book of Praise II. His commissioned hymns include those for Presbyterian Heritage Sunday, Augsburg, Goshen, Maryville, Tusculum,
Wilson and Knox (Toronto) Colleges, American University, Pittsburgh and Lancaster Seminaries, Peachtree Presbyterian Church and the Lutheran World Federation. A Life Member of The Hymn Society, he is the author of a book of 65 hymn texts called “Swift Currents and Still Waters” by GIA: www.giamusic.com. Wayne Leupold Editions has recently published two other collections: “God Is the Singer’s Friend” and “We Turn to God”.
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