April 7, 2017 meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

Let's try this again!

Our next meeting will be on April 7th, one week earlier than our regular second Friday schedule, so as to not conflict with Good Friday. Since we had to cancel the March meeting, we will resume our discussion with the following chapters of the book What I Saw in America :

Fads and Public Opinion
The Extaordinary American
The Republic in Ruins
Is the Atlantic Narrowing?
Lincoln and Lost Causes

Congratulations to those of you who read these chapters for the March meeting... you now have all your preparation done! I do not expect that we will read all of these five chapters aloud as a group at the meeting. I will ask you to share the excerpts that you found most interesting. Please try 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 try to read through it before the meeting.

Our May meeting will be held on May 12. At that meeting we will conclude our discussion of What I Saw in America. 

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 April 7th 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 the April meeting, 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

UPDATE for March 10 meeting

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

Due to the cold weather, and the majority of regular members unable to attend tonight, I am officially canceling this month’s meeting. We will meet on Friday April 7th (one week earlier than the regularly scheduled meeting, since the second Friday in April is Good Friday). Please plan on having completed the reading of What I Saw in America for the April meeting.

Stay warm and comfy on this blustery re-visit of a winter night…maybe pour a beverage and read some Chesterton!

March 10 meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings Fellow WPA Chestertonians,

We will meet this coming Friday evening, March 10th, to continue our discussion with the following chapters of the book What I Saw in America :

Fads and Public Opinion
The Extaordinary American
The Republic in Ruins
Is the Atlantic Narrowing?
Lincoln and Lost Causes

I do not expect that we will read all of these five chapters aloud as a group at the meeting. I will ask you to share the excerpts that you found most interesting. Please try 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 try to read through it before the meeting.

Our next meeting will be held on April 7th. At that meeting we will conclude our discussion of What I Saw in America. 

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 or the April 7th 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

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.