Scenes from The Banquet

The Banquet, as usual, was an outstanding event, bringing together Chestertonians with wine, laughter, and song.

I did miss Mark Pilon and his dulcimer this year, but then we had Seattle Chesterton Society President Kirk Kanzelberger's talented daughter Sophia on violin, and then his son Leo on classical guitar. The Wise Men was recited by a variety of young people who had a variety of accented voices. Then Mark Shea's son Peter recited a poem I believe about socks which was a real tongue twister. Dale himself recited a poem by J.C. Squires as noted below by Geir in the comments box.

Then there were the traditional toasts, with a new one added. The usual toasts were three, 1. To Chesterton, (Dale gave) 2. To the American Chesterton Society, (Mark Shea gave) and 3. To Chestertonians everywhere (Geir Hasnes gave). This year was added a fourth, in honor of our new movable feast, to all Local Chesterton Societies. Kirk Kanzelberger was the giver of this toast, and he gave a very moving and inspiring summons to all of us as to what, really, a local group should be.

In particular, he said a local group should have three goals: 1. have fun, 2. learn about Chesterton, and 3. apply Chesterton to our lives. From what I observed of the Seattle group, they have accomplished these goals, and continue to do so.

Kirk, Andrew Tadie and Mark Shea were instrumental in planning the conference this year, to which I join everyone who attended in saying THANK YOU.

OK, the pictures. First, is a scene of people toasting during the traditional toast portion of the evening. Next, is Kirk at the mic, next, is Shea lifting his glass for the toast to the ACS, next is everyone in the crowd, and in particular, a pair of love birds in the foreground, and lastly, Dale.