October 10, 2013 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Friends of G.K.Chesterton,

Fall color is creeping into the trees here in beautiful Western PA and now more than ever, it is time for understanding, appreciating and promoting the delightful wit and wisdom of G.K. Chesterton. 

I hope that you will consider joining us on Thursday October 10, 2013 for our WPA Chesterton Society meeting. 

As usual, the 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 will open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm. 

There will be two pieces for discussion this month. 

The first will be an essay selection from the book In Defense of Sanity, titled "George MacDonald". This essay was originally written by Chesterton as an introduction to the book George MacDonald and His Wife, by Greville MacDonald. It then appeared in the book GKC as MC published in 1929. Chesterton is "spot on" in his insights into this great writer. Even if you've never read George MacDonald, Chesterton's essay is thought provoking, and, as usual, should generate some lively discussion.

The second reading will be G.K.Chesterton's great poem Lepanto, written to commemorate the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. I will have a limited number of copies of the poem on hand. I would encourage you to bring a copy, or even better, to expand your personal Chesterton collection with the purchase of a copy of the annotated edition that is available from the American Chesterton Society. Also, any time that you spend researching the history surrounding the battle will help you understand and appreciate the poem, and provide you with interesting tid-bits to contribute to our discussion... To that end, I would recommend the Lepanto research done by Christopher Check. A brief internet search will produce links to articles written by Mr. Check on the subject. You can even purchase a digital download of a talk he gave on Lepanto at the ACS conference in St. Louis in 2010 for the mere cost of $1.99. 

Please read the readings before the meeting, and consider bringing a contribution to the refreshment table.

Feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have any questions about the readings or anything else.

Hope to see you on October 10th!