By Revs. Don Dewey and Susan Gonzales Dewey, Co-Regional Ministers
Dear Pastors and Congregations of the PSWR,
It has been 10 years since Susan and I began our work as your Co-Regional Ministers. We can’t begin to tell you how blessed and proud we are to be serving this amazing Region! Together with each of you we have accomplished so many wonderful things that they are to numerous to name. We are deeply grateful for the partnership in ministry entrusted to us that we share with you.
So as we enter this Advent-Christmas Season, we do so with not only gratitude in our hearts, but also with much excitement and anticipation for what God will do in and through this Region into the future. As we again prepare to receive the Christ child into our hearts and lives, giving thanks for this greatest of Gifts, we do so with holy expectations that will once more fill our lives and our world with unspeakable joy!
We are all to well aware of all the places of brokenness, despair, fear, hatred and violence that permeate our world today. We know that there are still “Herod’s” who threaten the weak and vulnerable in vain attempts to hold on to their perceived power. Yet as always, but especially in this Season we remember the song of God’s servant Mary, the mother of our Lord as she proclaimed God’s Sovereignty in the world:
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant..."
"He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty..."
This song of hope reminds us of who we are and whose we are no matter what our situation or circumstances or what might be happening in this fragmented world of ours. We know without reservation that God’s redeeming and reconciling love remains the ultimate power to save and transform us and this global community we are a part of.
So don’t lose heart nor be afraid, rather be as bold as Mary, as steadfast as Joseph, as wise as Sages, and as joyous as the Shepherds, “for unto you is born this day…a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”
Let this poem by Ann Weems go with you this Advent so that we together can sing with hearts full of great joy this Christmas!
THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
The Christmas spirit
Is that hope
which tenaciously clings
to the hearts of the faithful
and announces
in the face
of any Herod the world can produce
and all the inn doors slammed in our faces
and all the dark nights of our souls
that with God
all things still are possible,
that even now
unto us a Child is born!
May you be blessed this Holy Season!
Together on the journey,
Don and Susan