Dear DSF Family,
It is with a sorrow that arrests my breathing and yet a joy that comes from the unapologetic gospel that we proclaim that I write to you. As many of you may have learned, our dear friend, pastor, mentor and DSF alum and trustee, Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bock, passed away on Friday evening, April 2. Pastor Bob served as Senior Pastor of First Christian Church, North Hollywood for approximately 52 years and one month.
His life is an uncompromising witness to the gospel he proclaimed. There are few words that may be offered to express the profound sense of loss that we may all experience, to one degree or another. We hold Peggy, the family, and FCC in our prayers. With my limited capacity for expression in this moment, I offer portions of the words of the late poet Laurette, Dr. Maya Angelou, “When Great Trees Fall”
“When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after
safety…
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes light, rare,
sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid, promised walks never taken…
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration
Our sense, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be better.
For they existed.
Yes, friends, a “great tree has fallen” yet, we can be better for having known, having received, and having shared in community and communion, the gifts of this “great tree.”
May the promises of this sacred season be yours.
Marilyn S. Fiddmont,
Board Chair