History
The Sacramento Chesterton Society met for the first time at St. Stephen’s in June of 2012, as a local chapter of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (www.Chesterton.org). It is a group of people who enjoy reading and discussing the writings of G.K. Chesterton, while getting together for fellowship, conversation, and refreshments. There is no formal membership roster, no initiation fee or membership dues – all are welcome to attend.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it was found difficult and left untried.
G. K. Chesterton
Format
On the second Tuesday of each month, after the 6 pm Mass at St. Stephen’s, the meeting begins in classroom 2 with an informal social time of potluck snacks and drinks until about 7:30. We then settle in to discuss the reading for the month from roughly 7:30 pm to 9 pm. Everyone is welcome, and everyone can have a chance to talk if they want to, but nobody is required to speak. It is a convivial atmosphere where friendships are formed, thoughts are shared, and the Catholic Faith is upheld.
What sort of thing did Chesterton write?
Chesterton is hard to classify as a writer. He considered himself a journalist, but his writings are many and varied, covering several different genres. His writings are always unique – not at all what we have come to expect in any given genre or literary form. His writings are also surprisingly relevant to today’s current events.
Over the past 13 years, a variety of Chesterton’s books and essays have been read and discussed. Our local society has covered his apologetics (for example Orthodoxy, and The Everlasting Man), and also several of his novels: The Flying Inn, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, The Ball and the Cross, to name a few. We have enjoyed all of the “Fr. Brown Stories” – murder mysteries featuring a Catholic priest who solves every crime. Essays and social commentary covered were What’s Wrong with the World and Heretics, among others.
It is easy to read quite a lot of Chesterton and get to know the man, by just focusing on a couple of chapters every month.
Chesterton Event
The Sacramento Chesterton Society hosted its first Chesterton Event at St. Stephen’s in the fall of 2015, with guest speakers Dale Ahlquist and Chuck Chalberg (the original Chesterton impersonator). The event was repeated every other year, until October 2021, when the Chesterton Event became an annual event every October. Other speakers have included Christopher Check, Joseph Pearce, and John Walker (the new, official Chesterton impersonator).
Themes covered at these events (centering on what Chesterton had to say) have been “Tradition”, “Defenders of Christendom”, “Faith and Fairy Tales”, “Conversion”, and “Distributism: What is it?”. The Chesterton Event is always a fun-filled evening, packed with Chesterton’s wit and wisdom, and often a theatrical portrayal of G. K. Chesterton, the man himself.
