Start here: https://www.anselmsociety.org/our-story .

No. Read our statement of faith here: https://www.anselmsociety.org/blog/2021/4/12/statement-of-faith .

Well, our mission is a renaissance of the Christian imagination. We exist to help Christians remember who they are; to cultivate a deep awareness of their relationship to the Great Story, and to bring that awareness home to their families and churches. For us, that means helping each other remember some things modernity has forgotten. Like evenings filled with stories and songs and feasting. Homes and churches laboring to be marked by meaning. Conversations delving into the wonders of Creation—and the calling of subcreation. And maybe, just maybe, children who grow up around a community of parents who think this is all normal behavior!

On a theological note: this means you might encounter things from time to time you might associate with “being Catholic” or just plain old-fashioned. Reading prayers sometimes. Observing Christian feast days, not just secular ones. Thanking God for the lives of saints who’ve gone before and left behind a legacy of faithfulness. Using words like “liturgy” (which just means “something we do repetitively on purpose to help us remember something important”). In reality, contemporary American churches that DON’T do these things are the outliers, both historically and today geographically. Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox have always done them except for a few splinter groups of which the Reformers disapproved. We think pursuing a Christian imagination means taking a posture of humility toward things our ancestors have found consistently helpful—and skepticism toward critiques of those things that only (relatively) recently gained popularity. If you’ve got more questions, by all means contact us here: https://www.anselmsociety.org/contact .

Depends on the event type, but typically we will happily refund tickets up to one week before our conference and 72 hours before our smaller events. After that, you’re welcome to contact us here https://www.anselmsociety.org/contact to let us know you can’t make it, so we can let someone in off the waitlist to take your spot.

Time. We’ve made stories more and more a part of what we do over the years. At this point, the terms are pretty interchangeable—and we’ll still occasionally swap the alternate one in if we feel it describes the event better—but most of our small and midsize community events follow a similar format: stories, great food and drink, art and music and activities, and conversations about things that really matter.

Our events generally target adults and older kids (10 and up). That said, everybody’s kids are different and everybody’s idea of “kid-friendly” is different, so here’s ours. We believe, with Madeleine L’Engle, that “children’s stories” that are not good enough for adults are not good enough for our children. Likewise, we believe that most “adult activities” (and the behavioral expectations that go with them) are deeply healthy places to invite our children into—and that that invitation is one most older children are not only capable of accepting, but excited to accept. At our community events, we want them to see Christian grownups living life as it was meant to be lived—so they have a vision of the future to look forward to, and participate in right now. Just keep in mind the events happen on the grownups’ terms—so unless the event states otherwise, we recommend only bringing kids who are comfortable in that space; doing what the grownups are doing (including sitting and listening). NOTE: we often serve alcoholic drinks at our events (we don’t consider this “not kid-friendly” because we believe it’s good to model responsible consumption for our kids). More questions? Email hospitality director Terri Moon at terri@anselmsociety.org.

It varies considerably! You’ll frequently hear a riveting story told (or retold in a fresh way) and discussed. And there’ll always be some combination of the following: poems, more stories, singing, acting and performing, and other games and activities. And any time Anselm gathers, you can expect to find good food and drink, warm and deep conversations, and people who want to enjoy it all with you. And you can expect experiences that remind you who you are and what you were made for.

Two sample agendas from past events:

#1: Story, discussion of story by our Believe to See podcast team. Intermission. Live music/singalong and themed quiz game. Social time. (Wait, it’s been three hours?? We were just getting started…)

2: 20-minute talk to briefly demystify Shakespeare. Break into two groups; each group assigned a scene to rehearse. An hour later: come back together to share the scenes with each other—young and old trying their hand at acting Shakespeare and finding they can do it…and love it.