June 2012 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

June 2012 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings WPA Chestertonians!

Our June 14, 2012 meeting will be a discussion of the fifth chapter of G.K Chesterton's masterpiece Orthodoxy, available to view online here. The meeting will be held at the Middle Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, a right turn off of Rt. 19N,  just past the Zion Lutheran Church. The doors will open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. We will wrap up around 9:30pm. 

Email me if you have any questions. chestertonwpa@zoominternet.net

Hope to see you there!

May 2012 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

May 2012 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings WPA Chestertonians!
Our May 10, 2012 meeting will be a discussion of the fourth chapter of G.K Chesterton's masterpiece Orthodoxy, available to view online here. The meeting will be held at the Middle Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, a right turn off of Rt. 19N,  just past the Zion Lutheran Church. The doors will open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. We will wrap up around 9:30pm. 

Email me if you have any questions. chestertonwpa@zoominternet.net
Hope to see you there!

April 2012 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings WPA Chestertonians!
Our April 12, 2012 meeting will be a discussion of the third chapter of G.K Chesterton's masterpiece Orthodoxy, available to view online here. The meeting will be held at the Middle Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, a right turn off of Rt. 19N,  just past the Zion Lutheran Church. The doors will open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. We will wrap up around 9:30pm. In order to get to most out of the discussion, please try to read as much of the third chapter of the book as you can. 

Email me if you have any questions. chestertonwpa@zoominternet.net
Hope to see you there!

March 2012 Meeting of the Western PA Chesterton Society

Greetings WPA Chestertonians!
Our March 8, 2012 meeting will be a discussion of the second chapter of G.K Chesterton's masterpiece Orthodoxy, available to view online here. The meeting will be held at the Middle Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, a right turn off of Rt. 19N,  just past the Zion Lutheran Church. The doors will open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. We will wrap up around 9:30pm. In order to get to most out of the discussion, please try to read as much of the second chapter of the book as you can. 

Email me if you have any questions. chestertonwpa@zoominternet.net
Hope to see you there!

February 2012 Meeting of the Western PA Chesterton Society

Our February 9, 2012 meeting will be a discussion of the first chapter of G.K Chesterton's masterpiece Orthodoxy, available to view online here. The doors of the Community Center will open at 7:00pm for pot luck refreshments, with the discussion beginning at 7:30. We will wrap up around 9:30pm. In order to get to most out of the discussion, please try to read as much of the first chapter of the book as you can.
Email me if you have any questions. chestertonwpa@zoominternet.net
Hope to see you there!

WPA Chesterton Society news for 2012

Advent Greetings Fellow Western PA Chestertonians !

I trust that each of us are finding our way to The Child in the stable as Christmas is quickly approaching.  In the spirit of Advent, I hope you can take a minute to enjoy this piece of Chesterton's poetry, before the informational note below.

A Child of the Snows

There is heard a hymn when the panes are dim,

And never before or again

When the nights are strong with a darkness long

And the dark is alive with rain.

Never we know but in sleet and in snow,

The place where the great fires are,

That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth

And the heart of the earth a star.

And at night we win to the ancient inn

Where the child in the frost is furled,

We follow the feet where all souls meet

At the inn at the end of the world.

The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red,

For the flame of the sun is flown,

The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,

And a Child comes forth alone.

~G.K. Chesterton

A special note of thanks to all who contributed to our celebratory feast at the December 2011 meeting. The food, the fellowship and the festivites were wonderful. 

As promised, here are the titles of the Fr. Brown stories we will be enjoying at our Jan 12th 2012 meeting: 

"The Arrow of Heaven" (originally published in The Incredulity of Fr. Brown), 

"The Three Tools of Death" (originally published in The Innocence of Fr. Brown), and

 "The Flying Stars" (also originally published in The Innocence of Fr. Brown). 

Both Fr. Brown books mentioned here were included in the publication of The Complete Fr. Brown and are available online to read or print  at the link below. 

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/chesterton/gk/c52fb/

We will begin our 2012 chapter-at-a-time journey through G.K Chesterton's masterpiece Orthodoxy at the Feb 9, 2012 meeting. Our discussions will be greatly enhanced if everyone can read as much as possible of the designated chapter before the meeting. I would encourage you to get a hard copy of the book if you don't have one already. It is published in a text edition and an audiobook format read by Dale Ahlquist, both available for purchase from the American Chesterton Society. (If you subscribe to GILBERT magazine you are a member of the ACS, and privileged to a 20% member discount on purchases made from the ACS webstore.)  The entire text of Orthodoxy is also available free online at this  link. 

An annotated edition is also available for Kindle here .

If you haven't already, please remember to send me your check for $30 if you want to participate in the StAR bulk subscription for 2012. I need these before Christmas.  If you need my address, drop me an email.  I have in my possession the last issue for those of you who participated last year, which you can pick up at the next meeting.

Lastly, please check here on this page and/or Facebook page for current meeting information. Heading into winter months, we will keep our second Thursday of each month schedule in mind of the weather. If you wonder about the status of a meeting, please check your internet before leaving the house. I will try to make weather cancelation determinations 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. 

May you and your dear ones experience a Blessed Completion of Advent and a very Joyfilled Christmas Season!

See you in 2012,

Victoria Darkey

December 2011 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings,

WPA Chestertonians are looking forward to our December 8th meeting.  We will gather at the Community Center for what has become our annual celebration in anticipation of Christmas and the New Year. 

The first order of business at the meeting will be "feasting" and "festing".  The doors will open at 5:30pm to allow for plenty of time to do both. The feasting will consist of what ever celebratory foods we would like to bring. In the absence of a kitchen, what ever we bring should be "ready to eat".  For planning purposes, please RSVP to me no later than Dec 6th if you will be attending, and let me know what you will be bringing.  Paper products including dinnerware will be provided.

By about 7:30pm, we will move into a more literary form of feasting and festing. We will revisit the mummers play written by G.K Chesterton "The Turkey and the Turk". Those of you who read parts last year...we are counting on you to bless us again with your talents!  Below is a link to the public domain transcript of the play. I would encourage everyone to print a copy and bring it to our celebration. Also linked below is an article about mummery in general, which may be of interest whether or not you are familiar with this form of British folk drama.  

After enjoying the mummery, we will have opportunity for Chestertonian poetry reading, especially poems that have a theme related to Our Lord's Incarnation. If you have a favorite, please bring it to share. If you don't have a favorite Chesterton Christmas poem, I would encourage you to curl up with the internet or the nearest copy of a book of Chesterton's poetry, and find look for a poem to share. Both GKC and his wife Frances loved writing poetry about the Incarnation. Christmas poems by any of Chesterton's friends or associates would also be welcomed, which would include each of you...original pieces are encouraged.

In addition to the food and poems, please remember to bring $30 if you want to participate in the bulk subscription to the StAR Journal for the next year. If you aren't sure what this is all about, bring the money just in case, and at the meeting I can let you look a some sample copies. 

If you missed the November meeting, it was announced that starting in February 2012 and continuing throughout most of the remainder of the year, we will be reading and discussing G.K.Chesterton's great work "Orthodoxy".  Now would be a good time to find your copy, or put it on your Christmas wish list.  It is available in an annotated edition, as well as an audio book read by Dale Ahlquist.  Also, I have yet to hear from many of you as to your votes for which Fr. Brown mystery you want to read for the January meeting. Email me your suggestions soon, as I am planning on announcing the selection(s) at our Dec. event. 

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions! 

chestertonwpa@zoominternet.net

Blessings,

Vicki

  

http://www.folkplay.info/introduction.htm   - this is a link to a fascinating web site with loads of information about all things Mummery

http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/The_Turkey_and_the_Turk.html - here is a link to the mummer's play by GKC