February 10th Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

We will gather on Friday, February 10, 2017 for our second installment of What I Saw in America.

What I Saw in America was originally published by Dodd, Mead, & Co. in 1922. It was later published as part of The Collected Works of G.K Chesterton, Vol.21 (Ignatius Press), and has been most recently (2014) published in a single volume by Aeterna Press (www.aeternapress.com , or here on their @%&zon storefront for $8.oo).

The book is available free on @%&zon for Kindle here. It also can be read online here.There is also a  free Librivox recording of the book available here, and various print or digital formats can be found here for as low as 99 cents.

I have linked a couple of brief overviews of the book, from Dale Ahlquist, and from Joseph Pearce .

*NEW UPDATE*
At the February meeting we will attempt to get through the 4 chapters listed below:

In the American Country (This gem was included in the readings for last month, but time didn't allow us to sufficiently glean from it, so I am placing it in the line up for a second chance.) 
The American Business Man
Presidents and Problems 
Prohibition in Fact and Fancy

I do not expect that we will read all of these four chapters aloud as a group at the meeting. I will ask you to share the excerpts that you found most interesting. That means that you'll contribute better, and get the most out of the conversation if you to read as much as you can before the meeting. If you find yourself short on time, then skim through, and find at least one chapter that peaks your interest and read through it before the meeting.

**In these winter months, we will keep our second Friday of each month schedule, weather permitting. Please check here on this blogspot page and/or our Facebook pages for last minute meeting information. If you wonder about the status of a meeting, please check your internet before leaving the house. I will try to make weather cancelations or venue change announcements no later than 5:00pm on meeting nights, and of course, use your best judgement in light of how the weather looks for travel from your location. **

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 open at 7:00 pm for a pot luck of refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting will wrap up some time 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

The January 13, 2017 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

New Years Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

With our first gathering in the New Year just a couple of weeks away, now is the time to make sure you have a copy (or the links) for What I Saw in America.  

Since my November announcement of our plan to read this particular book, I have become aware that there are at least a few other local Chesterton Societies in the United States who are setting out on the same course. It confirms my hunch that what we all saw in America this past year has Chestertonians wondering what GKC said, when he saw "what he saw" on his year-long tour of our country in 1921.

What I Saw in America was originally published by Dodd, Mead, & Co. in 1922. It was later published as part of The Collected Works of G.K Chesterton, Vol.21 (Ignatius Press), and has been most recently (2014) published in a single volume by Aeterna Press (www.aeternapress.com , or here on their @%&zon storefront for $8.oo).

The book is available free on Amazon for Kindle here. It also can be read online here.There is also a  free Librivox recording of the book available here, and various print or digital formats can be found here for as low as 99 cents.

I have linked a couple of brief overviews of the book, from Dale Ahlquist, and from Joseph Pearce .

At the January meeting we will discuss the first 6 chapters. I do not expect that we will read all of the first six chapters as a group at the meeting. We will read one of the six chapters aloud, together, and simply discuss the other 5. Which particular chapter we read as a group will be selected by popular vote at the meeting. That means that you'll contribute better, and get the most out of the conversation if you to read as much as you can before the meeting. If you find yourself short on time, then skim through, and find at least one of the first six chapters that peaks your interest and read through it before the meeting.

**In these winter months, we will keep our second Friday of each month schedule, weather permitting. Please check here on this blogspot page and/or our Facebook pages for last minute meeting information. If you wonder about the status of a meeting, please check your internet before leaving the house. I will try to make weather cancelations or venue change announcements no later than 5:00pm on meeting nights, and of course, use your best judgement in light of how the weather looks for travel from your location. **

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

The December 9th Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Advent Greetings WPA Chestertonians and Friends!

This coming Friday, December 9th will be the next gathering of the Western PA Chesterton Society. This will be our traditional December meeting… which means a seasonally appropriate extra dose of conviviality and festivity, with a Chesterton-sized dose of reflection on one of Gilbert's favorite subjects... the Incarnation.

This year we will be re-enacting the verbal portions* of a presentation that took place in 2009 at Fordham University. The event was paradoxically called  "Chesterton and Christmas: A Serious Affair", and was described as " ...an homage to Chesterton's love for Christmas through conversations, poetry, and choral music." 

Here is an excerpt from a promotion for the original event:

Among the many ways in which one can prepare for Christmas, an especially beautiful one is by spending some time with the poems of G.K. Chesterton. Like him, we also live in a time of ideologies in which, as Chesterton says, "the darkness is noisy with systems." Here "systems" could be paraphrased as "abstractions." Our age, like Chesterton's, tries to dominate and shape reality according to a sticky web of prejudices, but stubbornly refuses to experience reality as it is given to us. For this reason, it is always refreshing to go back to Chesterton, who has been perhaps the greatest defender of simple human experience in the English-speaking world. All his work expresses a deeply realistic attitude, a passion for life as it is, not as we we would like to imagine it. This was certainly also at the root of his faith because Chesterton clearly recognized that only the Christian proposal fully values and rescues concrete humanity, with both its great desires and also its deep shortcomings. Chesterton's realistic and intelligent religiosity is well-displayed in his poems, which we have the great fortune of presenting in this unique Christmas celebration.

*(We will definitely have a reading of the poetry and conversation portions of the event, but I must admit that the originally excellent choir will not be in attendance. We'll do our best to make do in their absence!)

The "script"  for the evening is available HERE on the internet as a pdf. document .  Please print it and bring with you to the meeting. You do not need to do the reading before the meeting...just bring it along. We will read it together Friday evening.

We will meet at the Community Center in the Village of Middle Lancaster for after-dinner refreshments and beverages along with the readings, and poetry. 

The doors will open at 7:30 pm for a potluck of festive treats, with the discussion beginning shortly thereafter. Please note the adjusted start time... for the December meeting only. This will allow plenty of time for each of us to have had dinner before coming to the meeting.

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 early this week to let me know if you will attend, and what you plan to bring to the meeting. This will allow me to keep in communication with you in the event of a need for further details.

The meeting will wrap up sometime around 10:00 pm.

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.) 

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

November 11 Meeting of the WPACS

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

We will be meeting next Friday evening, November 11 for our last installment in our series on Distributism.

At this meeting we will consider, "Applied Distributism: What could this look like in my household?" 

Pre-reading is optional, but you may find it helpful to familiarize yourself with the readings. However, no matter whether you can pre-read or not... please print** these and bring them along with you to the meeting, or bookmark them for easy access on a digital device to bring to the meeting. Remember that there is NOT wi-fi access at the Community Center.

** I strongly suggest that you copy and paste them to a separate document so that you may reformat the text and avoid printing an inordinate number of pages.**

http://distributistreview.com/solitude/

http://distributistreview.com/two-difficulties/

http://distributistreview.com/fun-in-the-field/

http://distributistreview.com/chesterton-and-the-pickpocket/

http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/cho/cho_08parallel.html

The following two articles linked here are included as supplements for your own enrichment. I think they are each worthy of consideration, but I don't think we will have time to delve into them on Friday.

http://distributistreview.com/mondragon-and-the-global-economic-meltdown/#at_pco=smlwn-1.0&at_si=57f1ef83b17da6d4&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=0&at_tot=1

http://distributistreview.com/awkward-accurate-name/

Our December meeting will be on December 9th, and in keeping with our tradition for December meetings, we will have special festivities that evening. We will allow time to discuss and plan for this at our meeting this Friday. 

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.

Friday October 14, 2016 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

We will be meeting on Friday evening, October 14 for our next installment in our series on Distributism.

At this next meeting, we will take a look at "How Does Distributism Work". We will include a peek at some of Distributism's philosophical underpinnings, some examples of it in action, and consider some of the common criticisms. We will read together the following 4 essays by different contemporary Distributists, and conclude by reading aloud an essay written by G.K. Chesterton in 1927. It will benefit our discussion if you can read these ahead of time. However, no matter whether you can pre-read or not... please print these and bring them along with you to the meeting. **(I suggest that you copy and paste them to a separate document so that you may reformat the text and avoid printing an inordinate number of pages.)**

http://distributistreview.com/an-introduction-to-distributism/

http://distributistreview.com/common-good-private-good-and-personal-dignity/

http://distributistreview.com/the-butcher-the-baker-the-candlestick-maker/

http://distributistreview.com/utopia/

http://distributistreview.com/new-dark-ages/

Also,it is worth mentioning that the full texts of the early twentieth century papal encyclicals relating to Distributism [i.e., Rerum Novarum (Pope Leo XIII,1891), Quadragesimo Anno (Pope Pius XI,1931) and Divini Redemptoris (Pope Pius XI,1937)], are viewable and printable at http://www.papalencyclicals.net. Reading these can be very enlightening when looking at the context for Chesterton's Distributism.

The following additional links are to essays that I heartily recommend for contextual reading as well as a further treatment of the issues related to Catholicism and authentic Social Justice:

http://distributistreview.com/social-justice-pius-xi/ 

http://distributistreview.com/socialism-capitalism-materialism/

These links may also be of interest:

https://prezi.com/qut8zgwuuvke/social-encyclicals-centesimus-annus/ 
https://prezi.com/jrxo2jme4qum/social-encyclicals-caritas-in-veritate/

In November, we will consider, "Applied Distributism: What could this look like in my household?" We will look at a number of essays written by GKC in his own newspaper, "G.K.'s Weekly".The links will be forthcoming.

At all the meetings in the this series, we will strive to be clear about the definition of terms we will need to use.... terms like subsidiarily, solidarity, the Common Good, Catholic Social Teaching, distributive justice, goods, usury, capital, property, socialism, democracy, liberal, conservative, radical... you get the idea. These terms would need to be clearly defined for the purpose of meaningful dialog (AKA avoiding a brawl at the meeting), so please keep the pursuit of clear definitions in mind as you do your exploring.

I will post updates to this which will include more details and suggestions...in the coming weeks.

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.

The September 9th Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society.

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians and Friends,

We will be gathering on September 9th, which is two weeks from the posting of this announcement.

September marks the beginning of a new academic year for the students in our communities, and for the "life-long learners" in the WPA Chesterton Society we will spend our Autumn "semester" (the series of meetings from September through November) learning about that somewhat elusive, always intriguing economic theory of Chesterton's; Distributism. It is my hope that we will each personally engage in the process of understanding this fundamental expression of Chesterton's philosophy. 

PLEASE NOTE: With this series of meetings we will slightly deviate from our usual format. In short, there will be some homework, how ever, ... it will be self-directed (and self-corrected) homework. In short, ownership [for the learning process] will be widely distributed. Each month, in addition to the few essays I will select for us to read and discuss at the meetings, I will select a theme for the meeting, and ask you to do some on-your-own reading and exploration into that aspect of Distributism. Use the internet. Take notes. Copy an article. Maybe even buy a book. Then, come prepared to share your research and resources. In addition to reading and discussing the selected readings for the meeting, we will allot time for each of you to share the results of your personal investigation.

In order to help you accomplish this, I will be posting suggested articles and essays for you to read as jumping off points, as well as providing links to good websites where you can browse and sift through the information to find the materials that will pique your interest in this topic. Some of the basic good links to keep handy over the coming months are below:

http://distributistreview.com
http://www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk
http://www.thomasstorck.org


For the September meeting, we will examine "The Context for Distributism". This will include a basic introduction to Distributism, as well as discussion of where this idea came from and its historical context. 

The following three essays will be our selections for the September meeting. They are the first three essays in The Hound of Distributism, edited by Richard Aleman.  The Hound of Distributism is an excellent collection of essays by various Distributists, and I would recommend it as a basic survey book. The following three essays are the only ones of its content that are viewable on the internet for free. Print and digital copies of the entire book are readily available for purchase from various sources. If you choose not to purchase a copy of this book, then you will probably want to figure out how to read these online at the meeting. I DO NOT BELIEVE THEY ARE PRINTABLE in the free version format and you will find it helpful to have a viewable copy of these essays at the meeting. 

What's Wrong with the World (And How to Fix It)
by Dale Ahlquist

Towards a Description of Distributism
Dr. William E. Fahey

On a Tiresome Word
by G.K. Chesterton

The following link is to an essay that I strongly recommend for your contextual read outside of the above linked essays that we will discuss at the meeting:  http://distributistreview.com/social-justice-pius-xi/

I would also mention that the full texts of the papal encyclicals relating to Distributism are linked on the Distributist Review webpage. They can be very enlightening when looking for a context for Distributism, or to at least be skimming through over the next few months.

This link may also be of interest: https://prezi.com/ohkc6_kxrble/cst-basic-principles/

In October we will take a look at "How Does Distributism Works". We will include a peak at some examples of it in action, and consider some of the common criticisms of it.

In November, we will talk about "Applied Distributism: What does it mean for my household?" 

At all the meetings in the this series, we will strive to be clear about the definition of terms we will need to use.... terms like subsidiarily, solidarity, the Common Good, Catholic Social Teaching, distributive justice, goods, usury, capital, property, socialism, democracy, liberal, conservative, radical... you get the idea. These terms would need to be clearly defined for the purpose of meaningful dialog (AKA avoiding a brawl at the meeting), so please keep the pursuit of clear definitions in mind as you do your exploring.

I will post updates to this which will include more details and suggestions...in the coming weeks.

Also, mark you calendars for the annual ROCHESTER Chesterton Conference on September 24, 2016. This  one day conference is hosted at St John Fisher College by our friends, The Rochester Chesterton Society. This year the theme is "--isms", and the usual excellent line up of speakers promises not to disappoint. There will be more info at the meeting and in the coming weeks.

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.

The August 12, 2016 Meeting of the 
WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians!

Fresh from our conference, we will be meeting this Friday evening for full post-conference reporting from the group members who attended, as well as the reading of some Father Brown mysteries by G.K. Chesterton. We will read "The Crime of the Communist" and, if we have time "The Insoluable Problem", both viewable (and printable) here. Scroll down to The Scandal of Father Brown , and you will see the links to the titles. 

Next month, we will begin our fall semester of Distributism studies. More information will be shared at the meeting this Friday.

Please consider bringing a refreshment contribution to the festivities! Food and beverages for our potluck refreshment table are always appreciated and enjoyed. Paper products and utensils are provided. 

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.

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