January meeting

To start off 2011, the St. Sebastian Chesterton Society will begin Orthodoxy. In order to help keep us all on the same page, the membership present at the December meeting decided that everyone should use the same edition, published by Ignatius Press. It is available directly from the press, or through Amazon.

The January meeting will be January 9 at 7:00 PM in the rectory. We will be discussing the first chapter or Orthodoxy. (If you're feeling heretical and not yet convinced you should commit to Orthodoxy, the first chapter is available in Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.)

December meeting

The December meeting of the St. Sebastian Chesterton Society will be Sunday, Dec. 12 at 7:00 PM in the rectory. This month we will discuss

• The Diabolist
• A Piece of Chalk
• Dogs

Please email Matt Wyszynski (mattwyszynski1[at]gmail.com) if you would like pdfs of the readings.

Rescheduled meeting-Sunday 11/21 at 7:00

November Meeting

The next meeting of the Society will be this Sunday, November 14 at 7:00 PM in the rectory. John Anderson has picked out the reading, "Introduction to the Book of Job". As usual, email if you would like a pdf of the reading.

November Meeting

The October meeting of the society went well. Four members attended, and the discussion at first focused on ignorance about the Middle Ages (as GK wrote about in the selection for the month) and continued with ignorance in general. It was a lively meeting.

The November meeting will take place November 14 at 7:00 PM. The good Fathers Valencheck and Pfeiffer have once again extended their hospitality and offered to host the meeting at the rectory. John Anderson will select the month's reading.

In addition, the group also discussed the possibility of starting a more ambitious reading project, perhaps Orthodoxy, through the winter months. Any advice or feedback will be appreciated.

October Meeting

The October meeting of the St. Sebastian's Chesterton Society will be Sunday, Oct. 24 at 7:00 PM in the rectory. Fr. V. picked this month's reading "Getting to know the Middle Ages". If you would like a pdf of the article, email mattwyszynski1(at)gmail(dot)com.

September Meeting

The September meeting of the St. Sebastian Chesterton Society will be held on Sunday, Sept. 19 at 7:00 PM at the parish rectory. We'll be discussing two of the Father Brown short stories from the collection The Innocence of Father Brown:

• "The Blue Cross"
• "The Three Tools of Death"

Please contact Matt Wyszynski [mattwyszynski1 (at)gmail(dot)com] if you'd like a pdf of these stories.

July meeting

The July meeting of the St. Sebastian Chesteron Society will be held July 11 at the parish rectory. John Anderson chose three short essays to discuss.

1) Why I am a Catholic

2) The Revival of Philosophy

3) Philosophy for the Schoolroom

They can be found at the American Chesterton Society site, or if you email mattwyszynski1(at)gmail.com, a pdf of each essay will be sent to you.

June meeting

The June meeting was a success! Again we have four people attend and a lively conversation over G.K.'s "The Crusade." In honor of D-Day (a modern day Crusade?) we shared a bottle of French wine.

The July meeting will be held on July 11 at 7:00 PM. Hope to see you there.

June meeting

The St. Sebastian Chesterton Society's next meeting is slated for June 6 at 7:00 PM in the loggia of the rectory, weather permitting (whether the weather is permitting or not, we will still meet).

Fr. V has picked this month's selection.
http://chesterton.org/gkc/historian/crusade.html
Enjoy!

May meeting

Last night was the second (or third, if you count the play as a meeting) meeting of the St. Sebastian Chesterton Society. Membership has doubled in just two months! That is phenomenal growth! Welcome to our two new members! (Three if you count Sebastian, everyone's favorite dog that lives in a rectory on Mull Ave.)

We followed the typical meeting plan. Fr. V. picked out a great poem that we used as an opening prayer. You can view it on his blog. We then discussed the two essays selected for the month's meeting, "Philosophy versus Literature" and "In Defence of Detective Fiction." The essays formed the backbone of our discussion about how a Catholic can (and should?) read literature, a subject near and dear to Matt's heart.

The June meeting is slated for Sunday, June 6. Fr. V. will be choosing the reading selection, and we'll post more here later.

G.K. in Akron

I forgot to post pictures of G.K.'s visit to Akron on Easter Monday 2010! Here is one that come courtesy of Fr. V. The show went well and was well attended, especially considering that we didn't have much time to spread the word. Thanks to all who came.

May meeting

The St. Sebastian Chesterton Society will meet Monday, May 3 at 7:00 PM in the St. Sebastian rectory (476 Mull Avenue). The topic of discussion will be (or at least start from) two related Chesterton essays "A Defence of Detective Stories" and "On Philosophy versus Fiction". Please drop a line to Matt Wyszynski (mattwyszynski1[at]gmail[dot]com) if you'd like to have copies of these essays emailed to you.

Chesterton Show!

There will be a one man play about G. K. Chesterton on Easter Monday at 7PM at St. Sebastian Parish in Zwisler Hall. Admission is free (though you may make a donation if you wish.) We local Chestertonian fans are sponsoring this event to help kick off our Chesterton Society. See more here. Please come and drag along friends - help introduce Chesterton to others.

G.K.'s Theology of the Body

"All that talk about the divinity and dignity of the human body is stolen from theology, and is quite meaningless without theology. It dates from the Garden of Eden, and the idea (which I happen to hold firmly) that God created Man in His own image. But, if you remove that religious idea, there is no more sense in saying that every human being is lovely than in saying that every hippopotamus is lovely. It is a matter of taste; and many of us, after watching a sufficient number of human beings at Brighton [ed. note: or any twenty-first century American beach], might prefer the hippopotamus"

"On Dress and Decorum" in All Is Grist

Groundwork

The West Akron Chesterton Society held its first meeting, opening with a prayer. The first piece of business was to change the name to "The St. Sebastian Chesterton & Friends Society" to reflect that the group will be based as St. Sebastian Parish, though membership will not be limited to parishioners. Next, a general meeting format was decided on (prayer, recap of the previous meeting, brief presentation of the night's topic, discussion, closing prayer).

Stay tuned for future meeting dates and topics.

Inaugural Meeting!

Please mark you calendars for the first meeting of the West Akron Chesterton Society. We will be meeting at 476 Mull Ave. (aka St Sebastian Parish Rectory) on February 15 at 6:30 PM. We will discuss general issues and future plans.

We're up and blogging

Stay tuned to this blog for more information about the West Akron Chesterton Society.