William Allen Pasch

Since 2013 Bill Pasch has served as Organist and Composer in Residence at First Presbyterian Church in Peachtree City, GA, not far from his home in Griffin, where he lives with his retired-Lutheran-pastor spouse and in retirement himself, as Professor Emeritus of English at Clayton State University. Prior to his current church position, he served for seven years as organist and choirmaster at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in SW Atlanta and represented that church as a member of the Worship and Music Team of the ELCA-Southeastern Synod. Organist at age thirteen at his home congregation in Ohio, he has served other parishes in Massachusetts and Georgia. His compositions also appear in the Augsburg Fortress catalog. As a lyricist, he has won awards in several national and international hymn competitions.  Three of his texts appear in SJMP works by his long-time collaborator Robert J. Weaver (From All the Earth Send Up the Song, Here Marked Not with Water Only, and We All Believe).  His SJMP anthem Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning was sung as the offertory anthem for the December 2017 Bethlehem Prayer Service, simulcast between the Washington National Cathedral and the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Palestine.