Friday, January 27, 2017

THE KEYS, The Catholic Writers' Guild of England and Wales...

...was begun in the 1930s by staff on GK's Weekly  and is proud of its links with the Chesterton/Belloc era. It has met at various places in London over the years. For a long while its  Guild Church was St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, where a plaque in the crypt now commemorates our many meetings there. Way back in the 1970s it met at what was then a conference centre (now St Paul's Bookshop) adjoining Westminster Cathedral. Until recently we were based at St Mary Moorfields in the City, which became a very popular home base for us.  Latest move is to Farm Street, with Fr Dominic as our chaplain.  And this new chapter looks set to be as successful as all the others: good numbers for Mass, a noisily talkative dinner with much conviviality, and then a gathering in the hall for freshly-brewed coffee, and a guest speaker.

Wednesday's meeting welcomed Dr Sara Jane Boss from the Centre for Marian Studies at Roehampton, who gave a fascinating talk on the history and theology of devotion to Mary, analysing the differences between the Catholic/Orthodox and the Protestant understanding...

Guild meetings - I've been attending for something approaching 40 years - are a wonderful time to meet old friends and make new contacts. On this occasion, it was also an opportunity to present the winner of the Christmas crossword in FAITH magazine with her prize: Amanda Hill (a former Mastermind quarter-finalist - no surprise that she is a crossword whizz too) was given her bottle of wine amid applause.


No comments: