April 8, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

April 8, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

At our upcoming April 8th meeting... (that's this Friday!)

...we will continue discussing Nancy Carpentier-Brown's much anticipated and newly released biography of Frances Chesterton, The Woman Who Was Chesterton.

Our discussion will resume  with Chapter 5, and continue through Chapter 7.
We will wrap up the remaining chapters 8-10 at our May meeting.

If you don't have a copy of the book, it is available as a soft cover print copy from the American Chesterton Society's website (www.chesterton.org) or from TAN books (www.tanbooks.com), and in print or digital (Kindle) format from Amazon.

Make sure to check this blog or on one of our Facebook locations if there is any question about the weather on the night of the meeting. I will post changes or cancellations no later than 5:00PM on the meeting day.

On a special note: 

In light of the Easter Season (and the end of Lent), we will resume our regular refreshment table. Please consider bringing a contribution to the festivities! 

As usual. our 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 a right turn off of Rt. 19N, approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, just past the Zion Lutheran Church. (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 a pot luck of refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm.

Looking ahead, please mark your calendar for the  35th Annual American Chesterton Society Conference on August 4-6, 2016. This year's conference will be in our own area, on the campus of Slippery Rock University. Registration and complete conference schedule is now available under the "events"  tab on the ACS webpage, www.chesterton.org.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com

...in Western PA !!

March 11, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

March 11, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

AT OUR MARCH 11th MEETING...

...we will begin discussing Nancy Carpentier-Brown's much anticipated and newly released biography of Frances Chesterton, The Woman Who Was Chesterton.

We will discuss up to Chapter 5, roughly the first half of the book, at this month's meeting.

We will take at least a two or three months to discuss this book. Get your copy and begin enjoying it now! It is available as a soft cover hardcopy from the American Chesterton Society's website (www.chesterton.org) or from TAN books (www.tanbooks.com) or in paper or digital (Kindle) format from Amazon.

Please make sure to check this blog or on one of our Facebook locations if there is any question about the weather on the night of the meeting. I will post changes or cancellations no later than 5:00PM on the meeting day.

Please mark your calendar for the annual American Chesterton Society Conference on August 4-6, 2016. This year's conference will be in our own area, on the campus of Slippery Rock University. Registration and complete conference schedule is now available under the "events"  tab on the ACS webpage, www.chesterton.org.

On a special note: 

In order to observe the Christian tradition of fasting and alms-giving for the season of Lent, we will not have our customary refreshment table at the  March 11 meeting. On the "refreshment table" there will be a collection can. In lieu of our usual contributions of food and beverages, we each will have an opportunity to make charitable contributions of alms designated for the American Chesterton Society. After our Lenten meetings, I will consolidate the money, and send it to the ACS as a donation of alms from our Western Pa Chesterton Society. If you miss the meeting and would like to participate, you can make your donation directly to the American Chesterton Society on their website www.chesterton.org, or mail it to me and I will add it to the collections from the group. In doing this, our Western PA Chesterton Society will support the American Chesterton Society's mission to bring Christ to people around the world by introducing them to Chesterton. Imagine the good that would be accomplished if every local Chesterton society member were to give something no matter how small a gift.

As usual. our 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 a right turn off of Rt. 19N, approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, just past the Zion Lutheran Church. (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 , with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com

February 12, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

February 12, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

MEETING UPDATE:

We will be meeting as scheduled tonight but at a different location. 

Our hearty group is shaping up to be slightly on the smaller side, and on a cold February night such as this, a fireside meeting seems to be in order. The meeting location will be at my house, 104 Hazel Lane, in Harmony (16037)… right off of Rt. 19N, just up the road from the regular meeting location. If you need further directions please email, text, or call me.

Remember, in observance of Lent, there will not be the usual refreshments. There will be a donations can available if you’d like to make a Lenten offering to the American Chesterton Society.

I’ll look for you anytime after 7:15 PM. If you haven’t already, please let me know if you’ll be coming.

Blessings,

Vicki

wpachesterton@gmail.com

This month we will complete our reading and discussion of G. K. Chesterton's early philosophical and theological work, Heretics. 

We will cover the last three chapters of the book.

 We will discuss Chapters XVIII ("The Fallacy of the Young Nation"), XIX ("Slum Novelists and the Slums"), and XX ("Concluding Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy") 

Be encouraged to read the chapters before the meeting, if you can, but come to the meeting for the discussion no matter what.

Heretics is available to view on Martin Ward's "Chesterton's Works on the Web" webpage, and is available in downloadable formats on the Project Gutenberg website. If you prefer to listen to an audio file, this LibriVox link might be helpful. The book is also available in a Dover paper back hardcopy on the ACS website (ACS members save 20%) and it is available widely on the internet. 

AT OUR MARCH 11th MEETING...

...we will begin discussing Nancy Carpentier-Brown's much anticipated and newly released biography of Frances Chesterton, The Woman Who Was Chesterton. We will take at least two months to discuss this book. You may want to get your copy and begin enjoying it now! It is available as a soft cover hardcopy from the American Chesterton Society's website (www.chesterton.org) or from TAN books (www.tanbooks.com) or in paper or digital (Kindle) format from Amazon.

On a special note: 

In order to observe the Christian tradition of fasting and alms-giving for the season of Lent, we will not have our customary refreshment table at the February 12 and March 11 meetings. On the "refreshment table" there will be a collection can. In lieu of our usual contributions of food and beverages, we each will have an opportunity to make charitable contributions of alms designated for the American Chesterton Society. After our Lenten meetings, I will consolidate the money, and send it to the ACS as a donation of alms from our Western Pa Chesterton Society. If you miss the meeting and would like to participate, you can make your donation directly to the American Chesterton Society on their website www.chesterton.org, or mail it to me and I will add it to the collections from the group. In doing this, our Western PA Chesterton Society will support the American Chesterton Society's mission to bring Christ to people around the world by introducing them to Chesterton. Imagine the good that would be accomplished if every local Chesterton society member were to give something no matter how small a gift.

As usual. our 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 a right turn off of Rt. 19N, approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, just past the Zion Lutheran Church. (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 , with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com

January 8, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

January 8, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Happy 2016 Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

We will be meeting this Friday evening!

With lightening speed this New Year we will be barely past the Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh of Epiphany, when the second Friday of January will be upon us and it will be time for the monthly meeting of our Western Pennsylvania Chesterton Society.

This month we will resume our reading and discussion of G. K. Chesterton's early philosophical and theological work, Heretics. 

Please note: We will endeavor to wrap up Heretics in our next two meetings. In order to accomplish this, we will cover selected chapters from the rest of the book. 

For the meeting this Friday we will discuss Chapters XI ("Science and the Savages"), XIII ("Celts and Celtophiles"), and XIV ("On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family") 

I encourage you to read the chapters before the meeting, if you can. 

Heretics is available to view on Martin Ward's "Chesterton's Works on the Web" webpage, and is available in downloadable formats on the Project Gutenberg website. If you prefer to listen to an audio file, this LibriVox link might be helpful. The book is also available in a Dover paper back hardcopy on the ACS website (ACS members save 20%) and it is available widely on the internet. 

Starting in March, we will begin discussing Nancy Carpentier-Brown's much anticipated and newly released biography of Frances Chesterton, The Woman Who Was Chesterton. You may want to get your copy and begin enjoying it now! It is available as a hardcopy from the American Chesterton Society's website (www.chesterton.org) or from TAN books (www.tanbooks.com) or in hardcopy or Kindle format from Amazon.

As usual, for this Friday:

Our 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 a right turn off of Rt. 19N, approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, just past the Zion Lutheran Church. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.)  The meeting will start at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm.

Please consider bringing something for the refreshment table. I am looking forward to seeing all of you...

Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com

December 11, 2015

December 11, 2015 

Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

In honor of today's Feast day of St. Nicholas, here are some words that G.K. Chesterton once wrote in reference to the famous December saint.

"What has happened to me has been the very reverse of what appears to be the experience of most of my friends. Instead of dwindling to a point, Santa Claus has grown larger and larger in my life until he fills almost the whole of it. It happened in this way.
As a child I was faced with a phenomenon requiring explanation. I hung up at the end of my bed an empty stocking, which in the morning became a full stocking. I had done nothing to produce the things that filled it. I had not worked for them, or made them or helped to make them. I had not even been good–far from it.
And the explanation was that a certain being whom people called Santa Claus was benevolently disposed toward me. What we believed was that a certain benevolent agency did give us those toys for nothing. And, as I say, I believe it still. I have merely extended the idea.
Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void.
Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dolls and crackers, now, I thank him for stars and street faces and wine and the great sea.
Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking. Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can offer no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic goodwill."  
~ “The Other Stocking” (“My Experiences with Santa Claus” was printed in the Tablet in 1974, and was a reprint of an article Chesterton wrote in a magazine called Black and White in 1903)

He later wrote,

"Most men need institutions to make them distinguish themselves; and they also need institutions to make them enjoy themselves. For, paradoxical as it sounds, men shrink back from enjoyment; they make one automatic step backwards from the brink of hilarity; because they know that it means the loss of dignity and a certain furious self-effacement. It is to get over this first reluctance of every reveller that men have created also coercive festivals such as Christmas Day." (The Alleged Decline of Christmas, 1910

As a warm-up in practicing the art of humble hilarity, which we will all be enjoying in a few short weeks, and in keeping with our tradition of December meetings in the past, our WPA Chesterton Society meeting this Friday will be a somewhat festive occasion...in an Advent sort of way.

There is a group of us having dinner together at The Harmony Inn restaurant before the meeting, at 5:45pm. If you did not sign up to join us, and would still like to participate, please email me asap, and I will add you to our number.

Our meeting will be held in the Village of Middle Lancaster, at the Lancaster Township Community Center*. The doors will open at 7:30 pm for a pot luck of cheeses, desserts and festive treats, with the discussion beginning shortly thereafter.

Please note the adjusted time frame for the December meeting only. The 7:30 meeting time will allow plenty of time for each of us to have had dinner before coming to the meeting. The meeting will wrap up sometime around 9:45pm.

In the course of our evening together, we will read the following two essays written by G. K. Chesterton. We will also consider how Gilbert and Frances Chesterton "kept" Christmas in their home at Beaconsfield. Please print and bring these essays if you can. (If you'd prefer me to email them to you as documents that you can print, let me know by email.)

On Christmas that is Coming
The Survival of Christmas.pdf

Please bring a contribution to the festivities... any desserts, fruits, cheeses or beverage contributions will be appreciated. Coffee, teas and paper products will be provided. Please email me to let me know what you'd like to bring.

*The 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.)

...and as always, feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.

November 13,2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

November 13,2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

We will be meeting this Friday evening:

We will continue our discussion of G.K. Chesterton's early philosophical and theological work Heretics. At our October meeting, we had some spirited discussion about Chapter V, "Mr. H.G.Wells...", and we read aloud Chapter VI, "Christmas and the Aesthetes". 

For the meeting on Friday, November 13, we will read and discuss chapters VII and VIII ("Omar and the Sacred Vine" and "The Mildness of the Yellow Press") 

We will be taking a break from Heretics in December (see details below) and will resume it in the New Year.

Heretics is available to view on Martin Ward's "Chesterton's Works on the Web" webpage, and is available in downloadable formats on the Project Gutenberg website. If you prefer to listen to an audio file, this LibriVox link might be helpful. The book is also available in a Dover paper back hardcopy on the ACS website (ACS members save 20%) and it is available widely on the internet. 

Check your calendar to RSVP for our December meeting:

Our December meeting has traditionally been an evening of special anticipation of the Incarnation of Christ. We will meet at a local eating establishment to share a meal, and then return to the Community Center for a potluck of desserts and appropriate festivities. This year our December meeting will be on Friday, December 11. Please check your schedules and determine whether you will join us on that night. 
I will need to make group reservations as soon as possible, and need a preliminary head count. Please RSVP by email no later than Monday November 16 if you'll be joining the group for dinner on December 11. 

Once I know how many we will be, I will make the reservations for 5:30 or 5:45, so that we can get to the Community Center before 8:00PM for our desserts and festivities. Those not able to come for the dinner are still more than welcome to attend the meeting, but for now, please let me know whether you'll join us for dinner.  

As usual, for this Friday:

Our 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 a right turn off of Rt. 19N, approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, just past the Zion Lutheran Church. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.)  The meeting will start at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm.

Please consider bringing something for the refreshment table. I am looking forward to seeing all of you...

Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com

October 9, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

October 9, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

Autumn is approaching her splendor, and may well be dazzling us with her full glory within the next week. But, as you plan to take those country drives to view the foliage this weekend, please consider joining us for our next Chesterton Society meeting.

This Friday evening:

We will continue our discussion of G.K. Chesterton's early philosophical and theological work Heretics, for both October and November. 

For the meeting on Friday, October 9, please read chapters V-VIII. ("Mr. H.G. Wells and the Giants" through "The Mildness of the Yellow Press")

Heretics is available to view on Martin Ward's "Chesterton's Works on the Web" webpage, and is available in downloadable formats on the Project Gutenberg website. If you prefer to listen to an audio file, this LibriVox link might be helpful. The book is also available in a Dover paper back hardcopy on the ACS website (ACS members save 20%) and it is available widely on the internet. 

Here is an appetizer from Heretics :
“The whole secret of the practical success of Christendom lies in the Christian humility, however imperfectly fulfilled. For with the removal of all question of merit or payment, the soul is suddenly released for incredible voyages. If we ask a sane man how much he merits, his mind shrinks instinctively and instantaneously. It is doubtful whether he merits six feet of earth. But if you ask him what he can conquer—he can conquer the stars. Thus comes the thing called Romance, a purely Christian product. A man cannot deserve adventures; he cannot earn dragons and hippogriffs. The mediaeval Europe which asserted humility gained Romance; the civilization which gained Romance has gained the habitable globe.” -from Heretics, Chapter V, "Mr H.G.Wells and the Giants"

Check your calendar to RSVP for our December meeting:

Our December meeting has traditionally been an evening of special anticipating the Incarnation of Christ. We will meet at a local eating establishment to share a meal, and then return to the Community Center for a potluck of desserts and appropriate festivities. This year our December meeting will be on Friday, December 11. Please check your schedules and determine whether you will join us on that night. 
I will need to be making group reservations before the end of October and need a preliminary head count. I will be sending out a group email requesting your RSVP shortly after the October meeting. 

As usual:

Our 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 a right turn off of Rt. 19N, approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, just past the Zion Lutheran Church. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.)  The meeting will start at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up around 9:30pm.

Please consider bringing something for the refreshment table. I am looking forward to seeing all of you...

Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com