A weekend of revelry and restoration

Mark your calendars for the weekend of Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday. It’s high time the Anselm Society hosted a big gathering for learning, feasting, and moments of “you too? I thought I was the only one!”

So join us that weekend for A Long-Expected Feast!

True to hobbit tradition, we're offering not just one meal, but a full weekend of feasting—on food, fellowship, and the fruits of imagination. After some quality fellowship and Lord of the Rings trivia on Friday, we’ll take a one-day retreat complete with morning workshops, afternoon adventures, a delicious themed supper, and an evening pub night filled with the magic of Middle Earth. Come hungry for more than food; leave equipped for the adventures ahead.

Tickets are live! Purchase before they’re gone:

Friday Evening 9/19

Lord of the Rings Game Night

A chance to greet new and old friends around the table while we enjoy conversation, dramatic recitations, trivia, and more.

Saturday Morning 9/20

Morning Workshops

“Feasting on Beauty, Goodness, and Truth” — a contemplative retreat filled with your choice of extended workshops; time to be filled, to grow in knowledge or craft, and connect your vocation to the life of God. Details.

Saturday Afternoon

Afternoon Adventures

Take time to process! We’ll have excursions like hiking and coffee shop hunting, communal projects like cooking and crafting, or just time to be alone or with a friend.

Saturday Evening

Middle Earth Pub Night

An epic evening of Middle Earth food, tales, poems, and songs as only the Anselm Society can do.

Detailed schedule coming soon.

Our Gathering

The Peel House is located in the Old North End neighborhood just north of downtown Colorado Springs, an area filled with ancient trees and beautiful old buildings–almost Shire-like.

Transportation

It’s an easy 20 minute drive or Uber ride from the Colorado Springs airport. (Denver International Airport is about 75 minutes away and there’s a shuttle service, Groome Transportation, from there.)

Lodging

Nearby hotel options (we do not have room blocks at these hotels because we know everyone’s needs and budgets are different): 

• Budget: Best Western Plus

• Extended stay options: Home2 Suites

• Local flair: Kinship Landing, St. Mary’s Inn B&B (walking distance!), or the Mining Exchange

• Splurge: Glen Eyrie or the Broadmoor

Need help with lodging or transportation?
We don’t want cost or logistics to be the reason you don’t come. Email us at events@anselmsociety.org and let’s see if we can help.

Feasting on Words: Rediscovering the Virtues and Vices

keynote by dr. grace hamman

As medievalists, Tolkien and Lewis both knew how the meanings of words naturally shift, change, shrink, or grow over time. Some of the words that have shrunk the most in modernity—as both eminent medievalists would agree—are those that describe virtuous or vicious action. How can we as Christians reclaim words like meekness or temperance as not just blandly, boringly “good,” but beautiful, forming true human wholeness? And reject concepts like gluttony or greed without being preachy or judgy, but reflective about how such habits destroy full life in community?

The art and poetry of the past offers a way forward. In the Middle Ages, virtues and vices were a hot topic. Medieval preachers, poets, and artists conceptualized these words in creative, surprising, even funny ways: Envy resembled a basilisk, mercy worked like olive oil, avarice acted like a hedgehog! These medieval metaphors from poetry and art can help us to relish these words, to savor them as full-bodied concepts worthy of our attention and even our love.

To intentionally feast upon language and art, to create a hospitable and inviting portrait of the whole and holy life, is more important than ever for Christians in the age of AI and headlines and soundbites.

Inviting Children to the Feast

Matthew Mellema

How can we, as authors and aspiring authors of children’s literature, invite children to a banquet of truth, goodness, and beauty? What elements and devices are present in our favorite books written for children? This session will guide us to solid ground as we draw from a broad sweep of authors, from Byzantium to Kate De Camillo, Rick Riordan, and Stephen Lawhead. How do we lay a groundwork of principles to follow as we write for this important audience?

Stirring the Unseen: Song, Story, and a Joy Beyond the Walls of the World

Matthew Clark

In Tolkien’s work, song is given special prominence. His Trilogy contains around 50 songs. In fact in The Silmarillion, we discover Middle-earth itself is made out of music. Why was music so important to Tolkien? Why so central to the story he wanted to tell? Is Tolkien’s focus on music an arbitrary quirk of his fiction, or might there a note of truth in it? A clue to the nature of reality?

Making Room for Kairos in an Age of Efficiency: Three Feasts from The Lord of the Rings and Our Practice of Fellowship

amy baik lee

Many of the conditions of Middle-earth in its Third Age mirror those of our own day: grapples for power, technological advances used for good and ill, and a high opinion in many circles of efficiency and maximized production. What does a feast signify and entail in such times? In this session, we will take the time to linger at three festal tables in The Lord of the Rings, drawing what we can learn from them about the practice of sharing art, celebration, and fellowship — and ponder why this practice is vital to the journey of the Church and its saints.

A Table Set in the Presence of My Enemies: Feasting in the Midst of Trouble

Lancia e. smith

As a concept, feasting is associated with laden tables in celebrations of peace and abundance, and we do this when life is good. Yet there are very hard seasons in our lives that are marked by struggle, difficulty, and trouble. We are faced with real enemies, both visible and invisible. During these seasons, feasting might seem like something for another time or other people. Worse, it might even feel like a mockery. 

But our Good Shepherd sets precedents in Scripture about feasting. In Psalm 23 we find a very particular reference to this. “He sets a table for me in the presence of my enemies.” It is a statement about the Lord Himself and about a greater reality to which His people are called. Feasting is a declaration of Who is King. It is an act of trust and worship. It is a rehearsal of the life to which we are called. Feasting is also a visible act of faith in the Holy One and His Kingdom coming.

Let’s explore why we are called to feast even in the presence of our enemies and lean into practicing this even in seasons of trouble.

Feasting on Prayer Through Our Imagination

Deacon Terri Fisher

As artists and art lovers, we know and love the power of a good story, a stunning image, or a tune that evokes an unexpected emotion. Jesus set an example for us by teaching stories to engage the imaginations of his audience. We will explore the feast of prayer given to us through church tradition and teachings, as well as, modern neurological science, as we set the table to feast on prayer using the gift of our imaginations.

More:

Full Schedule

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Contact Us

Afternoon Adventures

After a morning of workshops, take time to process before our evening pub night fun, whether alone or with some of these suggested community-based activities.

Pipe moot (25 minutes from peel House)

• Join a small group of men on a back porch for pipe smoking and conversation. Limited seats available. Sign up after ticket purchase.

Onsite options at the peel house

• Common Room (1:30-3 p.m.) - Enjoy quiet time for reading, thinking, and creating

• Jam Session (1:30-3 p.m.) - A chance for musicians to just make music together

• Open Arts Guild Meeting (1:30-3 p.m.) - Open to all artists (writers, visual artists, musicians and performing artists, etc.)! Bring what you’ve been working on for encouragement and constructive feedback

Hiking options

• Red Rock Canyon Open Space

• Garden of the Gods

Tea at the yellow mountain tea house (10 minutes from peel house)

• Join a small group of women for tea. Limited seats available. Sign up after ticket purchase.

Other Ideas

• Meet at Monument Valley Park

• Visit Poor Richard’s Bookstore

• Visit local coffee shops (ask us for our favorites!)

 Have questions? We have answers. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Email us.