Grove City College will honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 7 p.m. Monday in Harbison Chapel with a special convocation commemorating the national holiday with an event exploring an idea central to the civil rights icon’s philosophy.
“Family as The Beloved Community” will feature an interview with Rev. Dr. D. Dean Weaver ’86, interim College chaplain, and his son Tommy Scales-Weaver conducted by Justin Jose, the College’s director of Multi-Cultural Education. Scales-Weaver is a mobilization coordinator for the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO), a nationally active campus ministry.
They will discuss how the family can embody “the Beloved Community,” a society based on justice, equal opportunity and the love of neighbor that Rev. King believed was the end goal of his nonviolent revolution.
Weaver is the pastor of Memorial Park Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Allison Park, Pa., and the father of seven children, some of whom, like Scales-Weaver, are adopted.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Scales-Weaver bounced from place to place and survived the streets much through his talent as a basketball player, a gift that earned him a full scholarship, first to Fairmont University and then to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He went on to complete a master’s degree in Sports Administration at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he reconnected with CCO. At IUP, he met Weaver’s daughter and son-in-law, a campus minister with CCO.
“Ultimately Tommy was called to serve college students through the CCO and at the invitation of our daughter he came to live with us for the summer while he participated in CCO staff training in Pittsburgh,” Weaver said. “Tommy became part of our family and was legally adopted at the age of 24. He is spiritually, legally and in all other ways, my son.”
The convocation will also feature a 37-member choir from the Pittsburgh-based Gospel Music Workshop of America.
The event is free and open to the public.
Grove City College students will mark the legacy of King on Tuesday, Jan. 22 with a chapel service featuring Andrenna Williams, volunteer coordinator at Uncommon Grounds Café, Aliquippa, Pa., and a vibrant and engaging speaker who serves in The Lord’s Army ministry, which manages the café and community outreach efforts in the western Pennsylvania borough.