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

September 11, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

September 11, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

This Friday evening:

We will begin G. K. Chesterton's early philosophical and theological work Heretics at our meeting this week. We will be working our way through the book over the next few months, taking a break from it in December, and then finishing up in the early months of 2016. 

For the meeting on Friday, September 11, please read chapters I -IV. ("Introductory Remarks..." through "Mr. Bernard Shaw ")

I will not be conducting a group buy for Heretics. You may want to work out where you will find a copy and start reading before the meeting this Friday. Heretics is available to view on Martin Ward's "Chesterton's Works on the Web" webpage, in your choice of English, Croatian, or Macedonian translations! It is also 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 the end of September:

As you can see, the Rochester Chesterton Society will be hosting their annual day conference on Saturday, September 26. (Yes, it is the same weekend that Pope Francis will be in Philly.) This is an excellent, reasonably priced one-day conference that many from our group have enjoyed in past years. There is no pre-registration. Just show up on Saturday morning, September 26, and pay your $10. An additional ticket for lunch on site is usually around $5 more, or you can bring a lunch, or go out on your own. There is usually a vigil mass celebrated on Saturday after the conference. There are some from our group who are planning to attend this "Rochesterton" event again this year. Group member-at-large, Walt Sarafin writes,

                
"I am planning to drive to the [Rochester] conference and have room for a passenger.  If you know anyone who needs a ride text me at 724-231-8919 (my computer is down so e-mail is not working).

Walt Sarafin"

If you are interested to attend but have any questions about places to stay or recommended travel arrangements, please feel free to contact me. 

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.) If our numbers are few and the weather is warm, we may opt to move the meeting 90 seconds up the road to my backyard deck or my air-conditioned dining room table... If you'd like, drop me an email to let me know if you will join us or not, so that I can make sure to advise everyone if there are any changes. 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

August 14, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

At our July meeting the decision was made by popular vote to read the last two chapters of The Club of Queer Trades (Chapters 5 and 6), rather than abrupt our group enjoyment of this delightful book to pursue something else for our August meeting. 

We will begin Heretics in September. Unless redirected by popular demand, I will not be conducting a group buy for Heretics. You may want to work out where you will find a copy and start reading before the September meeting. It is available to view on Martin Ward's "Chesterton's Works on the Web" webpage, in your choice of English, Croatian, or Macedonian translations! It is also available in downloadable formats on the Project Gutenberg website. It is also available in hardcopy on the ACS website. (ACS members save 20%)

I do wish to mention that there will be discussion of Laudato Si at some point in the coming year. This will most likely be in the context of exploring Distributism (aka., The Third Way), an authentically christian/catholic, and poorly understood economic system proposed and endorsed by Chesterton and his good friend Hilare Belloc.  Without examining and considering Distributism, one cannot be said to have an accurate understanding of Chesterton, so examine and consider we will! Stay tuned for more details.   

Meanwhile, for August I have hard copies of the The Club of Queer Trades book for those of you who requested and paid for them. The book is also available to view or print on the internet. Please email me if you need help finding the link.

Please consider praying for those traveling this week to the annual Chesterton Conference in San Antonio. I will bring a report of the conference to the August 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 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 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

July 10, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

At our July meeting this Friday, we will continue reading The Club of Queer Trades. We will read Chapter 3, and a selection from the remaining three chapters. The selection will be made by popular vote at the meeting.

I have hard copies of the book for those of you who requested and paid for them. The book is also available to view or print on the internet. Please email me if you need help finding the link.

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 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 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, please feel free to email wpachesterton@gmail.com

June 12, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

This Friday we will begin a little light summer reading with The Club of Queer Trades. We will begin the book by reading the first three stories at our June meeting and finish it in July. 

Here is a link to a "Chesterton 101 Lecture" on the book,  by Dale Ahlquist from the ACS website.

The book is 146 pages, paperback. (It is also available digitally for free on the internet.) With our ACS local group discount, a real copy will cost $6.00 (includes S&H). I have ordered copies of the book for those of you who requested and paid for them. They have not arrived yet, but hopefully will do so by Friday. (If they don't arrive in time, I will bring some print copies of the first few chapters for us to share.) Also, any of you who have digital reading devices, please bring them to the meeting. The book is available as a free download at Project Gutenberg website.

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


Any questions, please feel free to email wpachesterton@gmail.com

May 15, 2015 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

PLEASE NOTE: Our May meeting date has been moved from the second Friday in May, to the third Friday in May. This is because I have an immovable scheduling conflict for the second Friday this month. We will return to our regular second Friday schedule in June.

At the May 15th meeting we will complete our discussion of Chesterton's biography William Cobbett.  I still have copies of the book...they cost $10 each. Please contact me if you'd like one.


The Club of Queer Trades in June and  July...

We will begin a little light summer reading, The Club of Queer Trades, at our June meeting and finish it in July. 

Below is a synopsis and a review taken from the ACS web store description of the edition of the book available from the ACS.

Six mysterious adventures of Basil and Rupert Grant, who encounter what seem to be strange, unexplainable crimes, all of which turn out to have even stranger explanations. The Club of Queer Trades is full of whimsical short stories by the brilliant and witty English author, G.K. Chesterton. Improbable plots, marvelously funny episodes, evocative descriptions of late Victorian London distinguish delightful tales focusing on a club devoted to completely original and unusual professions. First republication to include all 32 of Chesterton’s own original and hilarious illustrations.

"Although this is not exactly G.K.’s “deepest” work of fiction, it is immensely funny and entertaining.... I successfully used this book to bait a friend of mine into reading Chesterton leisurely for the first time – and he loved it! Great plot, great twists, and great plot twists (in each chapter, no less!) Don’t expect the cosmic relevance of  The Man Who Was Thursday, or the obvious intellectual stimulus of  The Ball and the Cross with this one. Expect fun and the unerring Chestertonian preference for truth over facts."

The book is 146 pages, paperback. (It is also available digitally for free on the internet.) With our ACS local group discount, a real copy will cost $6.00 (includes S&H). If you'd like a copy, please bring $6 to the meeting, or mail it to me. I will order the books by the end of May, so as to have them for the June meeting. 

As a side note, group member Stephen Russell has informed me the Faith Builders Choir will be performing a concert on Saturday evening, May 23 at their facility near Meadville. This is an excellent choir. If you are interested in attending the program, email me and I will provide you with more information.


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


Any questions, please feel free to email wpachesterton@gmail.com

April 10, 2015 
Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society
Changed to April 17, 2015

Attention WPA Chestertonians,

IMPORTANT: There has been a change to the previous meeting announcement. Due to a significant number of our group not being available for a meeting this week, we will NOT meet this Friday, April 10 as previously announced. Instead, we will meet next Friday, April 17, 2015. The doors will open at 7:00pm at the Community Center for our potluck of refreshments, with the meeting officially getting under way at 7:30pm. If you plan to attend the meeting, please email me so that I can get an estimated head count for the meeting. 

Our reading plan and the meeting time frame will remain the same, and you are still encouraged to bring contributions to our refreshments table. See the blog post that appears right before this one for all the details.

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