|
|
|
Former Moderator and General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church, Dr Jack Weir, died yesterday, Monday 18 September, aged 81, after a long period of illness.
In an outstanding career of service to the Church, Dr Weir served as a missionary in China, a parish minister in Letterkenny and for twenty years he was the Clerk and General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church, being elected Moderator in 1976.
A man of courage and conviction, Dr Weir was not scared to take initiatives that others would have shied away from. In December 1974 he joined Rev Eric Gallagher and other churchmen to meet with the IRA leadership at Feakle, Co. Clare, in an attempt to begin dialogue that might ultimately lead to an ending of violence. Then in April 1992 he was involved in further dialogue alongside another former Moderator, Dr Godfrey Brown, meeting with various paramilitary organisations and political groups including Gerry Adams and Tom Hartley representing Sinn Fein.
In another initiative he controversially led a Presbyterian Church delegation to meet Pope John Paul on the occasion of his visit to Ireland in 1979. He was also involved in the Ballymascanlon Inter Church talks between the Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic Church and assisted in formalising regular meetings of the 'Four Main Church Leaders.'
A man of vision, Dr Weir was concerned that the Presbyterian side of the Northern Ireland situation was not being told in the USA and in 1981 he organised a delegation of senior Presbyterians which visited the main cities in the USA to successfully put another side of the story.
In more recent years his courage was further demonstrated as he fought the effects of Parkinson's Disease, maintaining his interest in church affairs and in particular his love for China, the land of his birth. While knowing it was not the wisest course of action, he defied medical advice to visit China one last time in 1996, once more to visit Shenyang where he was born and brought up. 'I had come full circle,' was his emotional response, 'I had come home.'
Paying tribute to Dr Weir present Moderator Dr Trevor Morrow said, 'Jack Weir was a man of utter integrity. Apart from his wisdom and sound judgment, his willingness to honour and give of himself to those with whom he may have disagreed meant that there was no one in the Presbyterian Church and in the wider community who did not respect and genuinely admire him. He was not only a good but a godly man. All his actions and opinions flowed from a disciplined life of prayer. Jack Weir was a towering figure in the Irish Church. We are deeply saddened by his death.'
Andrew John (Jack) Weir was born on 24 March 1919 in Mukden, Manchuria, now Shenyang City, China, the son of Presbyterian missionaries Rev Andrew and Margaret Weir. After primary education in mission schools in China he returned to Belfast to continue his studies at Campbell College and Queen's University where he graduated in Experimental Physics. After studying Theology at New College Edinburgh and Assembly's College Belfast he was ordained on 25 October, 1944 as a missionary to China, so following in the footsteps of his father who was buried in China after his death there in 1933.
He began his ministry working in the National Northeastern University. However following Communist victories throughout the Northeastern provinces he moved to the Church's Theological College where he taught until the withdrawal of foreign missionaries from China in 1950.
Returning to Ireland Dr Weir ministered in the Letterkenny congregation, Donegal, before being appointed as Deputy Clerk of the General Assembly in 1962, becoming Clerk in 1964. He retired in 1985.
His time as Clerk and General Secretary was marked by a revision of the administrative system of the Presbyterian Church, a re-writing of the code governing the Church and the response of the Church to an unparalleled time of civil unrest and violence. Alongside this was a thawing of the relationship between the Roman Catholic and Reformed Churches following Vatican II.
Dr Weir's competence fully matched all these situations and with unsurpassed judgement and skill he met the confusions and contradictions with enthusiasm. With his gifts of leadership and personality he soon became an international church statesman respected by all those he met for his clarity of thought and conviction of faith. His outstanding contribution and also that of Cardinal Cahal Daly was recognised by the award of honorary doctorates to both men by Queen's University in 1990.
Dr Weir was also responsible for the refurbishment of the chapel in Church House, in remembrance of his own mother and father and as a memorial to all the men and women who served in the missions of the Presbyterian Church.
In its tribute on his retirement as Clerk, the General Assembly noted how Dr Weir enjoyed the confidence of all parts of the church, endowing him with 'persuasive influence, unobtrusively exercised but effective and far reaching. This has done much to strengthen the bonds of union which hold us together and enable us to respect legitimate differences, where such exist, without disruption. Dr Weir has not spared himself,' concluded the tribute, 'he has striven to the limit of ability and strength.'
In all he did Jack Weir never thought of himself, his only desire to serve others and his Lord with unswerving commitment and zeal.
An only child, Dr Weir was unmarried.
Dr Weir's funeral service will take place in Malone Presbyterian Church at the junction of Lisburn Road/Balmoral Avenue on Thursday 21 September at 11.30am followed by committal at Roselawn Crematorium at 1.30pm
Issued by Stephen Lynas, Presbyterian Information Services. Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
PCI Home . . . Press Office . . . News Archive