Vol. III, # 14, Nov. 12, 2004

PH is grateful that readers were willing to wait twenty-four hours for this week's PHA. PH went to a MCV sponsored medical conference and learned the latest information on depression, diets, gastric by-pass surgery, hormone replacement treatment, treatment of breast cancer and prevention of the flu. Many of you may have thought that PH had been summoned by President Bush for a new cabinet position (Homeland Shrink). Rumors indicated that the president had narrowed his choices down to James Dobson and PH. Needless to say, PH came back to the SSBSC.

Pastor Mike to Be Officially and Spiritually Installed

At 4 PM this Sunday Pastor Mike will be installed as RRCB's fifth pastor. This will likely be a high church service with plenty of robes, excellent music and maybe a chant or two. Will Pastor Mike and Vivian's dog be present and robed? Joe Beagle Alvis only attends out door installations.

TeeVee Gene and Artist Ellie Have A New Grandson. Ellie Reports:

Dear Henry: Gene and I are the proud grandparents of Archer Harrison Cox, born October 28, 2004, 6lbs. 1oz, 20 1/4". His parents are Cheryl and Michael Cox. His older brother is Mason. All are doing well despite a month's premature birth. They live in Midlothian. Ellie and Gene

Shepson Beth Has A Blessed Idea

Hi there! Hope you two (Charlotte and Bill) are enjoying this beautiful fall weather. This morning in the paper I saw where plush toys (Beanie Babies) are being sought for Iraqi children and will be collected at Henrico fire departments through the end of the month. I wonder if our class could do this. We do so much with ISH (as well we should) but we really haven't done anything for others outside our area. This would be a limited time, but it may be that there are class members who would like to participate. What say you?!

Beanie Baby-Type Stuffed Animals Sought for Children of Iraq

Beanie Baby-type stuffed animals sitting around the house?

What to do with them? A suggestion: a Richmond lady will take

them off your hands and have them sent to the children of war-torn

Iraq as part of a program called "Operation Compassionate Heart."

If you have any small animals available, you may bring them

to the Shepherd-Simpson Bible Study Class, or to any fire station in

Henrico County or Chesterfield County. They will be picked up from

there on December 1st, bundled up, and sent on their way.

Questions? Call Charlotte and Bill Simpson at 285-3185.

Don't forget. The absolutely last day to make these gifts

available is Tuesday, November 30th.

Bettsy Heggie Invites All to the Advent Book Club

Dear Henry,
I'm wondering if you could give mention to the included note in one of Poor Henry's newsletters. Thank you! Bettsy Heggie

The Advent Book Club

Do you like to laugh? Do you like a page-turner? Do you like gentle fiction? If yes, the Advent Book Club is the place for you. You will find a light discussion of a cozy holiday themed book, good friends new and old, and a fresh cup of coffee. The annual book club provides a gentle time during the holidays just for you.

This year's selection, Daniel Plainway, Or the Haunting of the Moosepath League, by Van Reid is delightful. Moosepath fan Bettsy Heggie will lead the group. Our first meeting is November 30th, 10:00 A.M. in the church parlor. Other meeting times are Dec 7, 14 and 21.

For more information contact Bettsy at 285 5715 or tbcheggie@comcast.net or Bob Dibble at the church office. Bob will order a supply of books for us, or it is available through the library and on-line. A note of warning, Daniel Plainway is a fun easy read but is 385 pages; you may want to pick your book up soon.
Bettsy Heggie
804 285 5715

Advent Will Be Here in Two Sundays

The year is quickly winding to a close. This Sunday is Installation Sunday. Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and Advent begins on November 28. In December we will have the Chancel Choir Concert (performing parts of the Messiah), a Christmas pageant, two Christmas Services on Friday, December 24 and another service on Sunday, December 26. How many Shepsons will be in the SSBSC on that morning? There is the strong possibility that we will have a Christmas social in December and our annual New Year's Eve Watch. Meanwhile we will continue our study of I Samuel.

Saul Enters the Story or Will He? Teacher Bob Knows

Shepson Gene (not the TeeVee one) covered the eighth chapter of I Samuel last Sunday. We know that the people want a king. Have things really changed that much? Young Saul might be presented to us this Sunday. However, Teacher Bob might review the Prologue of John or he might draw a picture of Saul (a real hunk) on our green board. Come and find out.

Prayer Rounds

Remember in your prayers: Bob Tyler's grandson Carter, Sue Hodder, Rick and Linda Mears, Donald and Barbara Deer, Audrey Thomson's sister Sharon Ruben and Sharon's family, Jared Oliver, Julia Tyler and her parents, Mary and Julian Pentecost, Kay and Bob Culpepper, John and Margaret Oliver, the Church clergy and staff, our military and civilians in harm's way, and those only known to you.

The Schubert Mass Was Outstanding

Last Sunday's service was on All Saints' Sunday and was absolutely superb in content, music and spiritual uplift. It does not get much better at RRCB or any church.

There Are No Shepson Birthdays
or Anniversary Celebrations This Week

Do You Feel In Control?

On this past Thursday night the Modern Theological Discussion Group discussed The Dignity of Difference by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Sacks writes a lot about the impact of the globalization of information and our ever changing world. He believes that various cultures need to have "conversation" in order to prevent conflict and better understand each other. Much is out of our control, especially institutions of the cultures of the past. Religion offers some comfort to many in a world of change. What follows is an excerpt from his book (pp 70 - 72).

"But this is only part of the story. Another, more significant factor, is the breakdown of the institutions of social life. In the past, people were helped to cope with change because they had what Alvin Toffler calls 'personal stability zones.' There were aspects of lives that did not change. Of these, the most important were a job for life, a marriage for life and a place for life. Not everyone had them, but they were not rare. They gave people a sense of economic, personal, and geographical continuity. They were the familiar that gave individuals strength to cope with the unfamiliar. Today these things are becoming ever harder to find. Almost no job in the global market is permanent. More and more employment is becoming part time, short term and contractual. Even businesses like the great Japanese companies or IBM, which used to pride themselves on their lifelong commitment to employees, are no longer able to do so in the rapidly changing environment of modern business. Marriage, the very matrix of continuity in traditional societies, is rapidly being eroded by serial relationships, cohabitation and divorce. Fewer people are marrying. Fewer marriages last a lifetime. In Britain, four in every ten children are born outside of marriage. Four in every ten marriages end in divorce. The very concept of belonging to a place, a neighborhood, a locality - somewhere we belong and call home - has all but disappeared. We travel and move, often because our work demands it. In the United States 20% of people change homes every year. We face the maximum of uncertainty with the minimum of resources to protect us against insecurity. It no longer takes place within a frame of the things that do not change.

More importantly, we no longer feel a sense of control over our lives. The great forces that surround us - financial markets, currency movements, technological change, the economic climate, the international arena, the natural environment - are becoming ever volatile, complex and unpredictable. They no longer have identifiable agents. Instead they are the result of the uncoordinated responses of billions of individual decisions. Even governments in an age of powerful multinational corporations have highly circumscribed powers. If businesses do not like one country's economic or fiscal policy, they will move their production or financial base elsewhere. If individuals are frustrated by one government's ban on reproductive cloning or the purchase of organs for transplantation, they can travel to some other country where it is not yet prohibited. When nation-states become ever more limited in their ability to shape events, we begin to feel that the car carrying us forward has no driver at the wheel."

PH: Jonathan Swift said it best almost 300 years ago: "Most people have enough religion to know how to hate, but not enough to know how to love."

Poor Henry's Archives

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