"I still hold that it is the main earthly business of a human being to make his home...
as symbolic and significant to his own imagination as he can;
whether the home be in Notting Hill or Nicaragua, in Palestine or in Pittsburgh."-G.K.Chesterton, "The Artistic Side"

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Sept 12, 2014 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society



Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

The summer is winding down and a busy fall awaits us. 

First, we will have a "special guest" at our regular WPA Chesterton Society meeting on September 12, the second Friday evening of September.  The "special guest" at the meeting will be GILBERT.... and by that I mean your Gilbert magazine. Dig around through your current and back issues of Gilbert, find your favorite articles, stories or poetry pieces and bring the magazines to the meeting. We will have a round table discussion of the content we each bring. 

*** If you don't have any Gilbert magazines, then you are in a sad and sorry condition that can only be remedied by a swift course of action. You must join the American Chesterton Society as soon as possible, and start getting Gilbert in your mailbox. Meanwhile, go to the ACS web store, and purchase the download of an electronic version of a back issue that interests you so that you can bring something to the meeting.***

Saturday September 27th marks the 12th annual Rochester Chesterton Conference. This excellent day conference has been a place of joyful pilgrimage for many from our group in years past. This year, as usual, the speaker line up includes Dale Ahlquist and Joseph Pearce. The Rochester Conference is about a 4 hour drive from our area and promises a provocative day of talks, and great fellowship with Chestertonians from all over the US and Canada. Email me if you want more information.

In addition to our regular WPACS meeting on Friday October 10, October will also include the opportunity to hear from a special guest, the American Chesterton Society president, Dale Ahlquist. Dale will be speaking in our area at Aquinas Academy on Friday evening October 3. He will then be speaking at an event in Youngstown hosted by the Warren Ohio Chesterton Society on Saturday evening Oct 4, and at various places in the Cleveland area on Sunday October 5 and Tuesday October 7. More details about these events will be forthcoming.

As usual...
Our meetings are held in the Village of Middle Lancaster, at the Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, in Butler County PA. Kings Ally is off of Rt. 19 approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, and just north of the Zion Lutheran Church and just south of East Lancaster Road. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.) The doors open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting wraps up sometime around 9:30pm.

Please consider bringing something for the refreshment table, and as always, feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have and questions or comments.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

August 8, 2014 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

There WILL NOT be a regular meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society. Instead there will be a planning meeting for the events in early October when Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society will be in our area. If you attend the first planning committee meeting we held at the end of May, please do try to attend this Friday's meeting. If you did not attend in May, but are interested in helping, please feel free to come. If you are planning to come, please send me an email so I know how many to expect.

As usual...
This meeting will be held in the Village of Middle Lancaster, at the Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, in Butler County PA. Kings Ally is off of Rt. 19 approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, and just north of the Zion Lutheran Church and just south of East Lancaster Road. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.) The doors open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the meeting beginning at 7:30.We will wrap up sometime around 9:30pm.

On a closing note, the American Chesterton Society conference in Mundelein, Illinois was a wonderful success. Our WPA Chesterton Society was represented by Grettelyn Nypaver, Walt Sarafin and me. The talks were excellent, the weather idyllic, and the fellowship sweet. One of the  talks that I find myself still reflecting on was the talk given by Fr. Udriss, the English priest assigned to investigate whether there should be a cause opened for Chesterton's sainthood. He outlined very clearly a profound connection between Gilbert and "The Little Flower", St. Therese of Lisieux. It was fascinating. Nancy Brown also gave a talk in which she made a compelling case for Frances Chesterton's sanctity to be considered alongside Gilbert's. 
Here is a link to a place where you can hear a couple of the talks (I think more are to come), and here is a link to a video of "Our Grettelyn" sharing some of her many talents at the ending banquet. If you use Facebook, check out the pictures and comments about the conference on the Facebook page for the American Chesterton Society and on our own group page. 

Please consider bringing something for the refreshment table, and as always, feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have and questions or comments.