Separate from subscribing to the print magazine, which anyone can do once publication begins, Local Fold membership allows you to participate in the web forum we’ve established. It’s a kind of virtual clubhouse for our community, where local, committed Christian believers can interact with one another as friends and neighbors without being monitored by strangers or harassed by haters and trolls. It’s not for the whole world; it just for us. 

All sincere Christian believers of the West Chester area are welcome in the Fold. The editors are Catholic in doctrine and practice, which means (among other things) that we feel a spiritual kinship with all those who share our faith in Christ, our moral values, and our general commitment to truth, beauty and goodness.

We are deliberately vague in using the term, since there’s a subjective element involved. For some it’s easy to drive a half hour to come to events, for others, it’s not local unless it’s within walking distance of home. Most of us are parishioners of St. Agnes, but we have members who live in Kennett Square, Downingtown, or Elverson.

The main idea is that our online community is meant to serve and foster three-dimensional friendships, which are the only kind that ultimately satisfy the human heart. The aim is to relate to each other as whole persons, not disembodied avatars.

But even there, there are caveats and exceptions. If you live in, say, Texas, but grew up in West Chester, visit often, and hope to move back someday soon, you may legitimately think of yourself as a local.

For a self-test of belonging, ask yourself, “Do I feel like these are my people? Does the West Chester area feel like home?” If the answer is yes, feel free to join.

At this stage, no. The priority is to develop and grow our life-in-common. Later, we will try to find ways to make it financially self-sustaining.

1. Spread the word among faith-filled family and friends who live in the area. The success of the venture depends on our achieving a critical mass of engaged readers, contributors, and members.
2. Come to our events. I mean the ones that you genuinely find attractive and enriching for you and your family. It’s always encouraging when people show up. And as we grow in number, we’ll be able to expand our offerings.
3. Initiate things! We all have ideas for enriching our Christian life-in-common. Often the only thing stopping us from starting something new is that we seem to lack opportunity—the right physical space or a network of local friends who might be happy to get involved if they only knew about it. Those are the very sort of things The Local Fold is working to develop.
4. Volunteer to help at Church St. House (host events, cleaning, gardening, occasional childcare). 
5. Write essays and letters to the editor for our print edition. You don’t have to be a professional author or great intellectual. You just have to have something you’d like to express among friends, or a conversation you’d like to start.
6. Interact online. Post an idea or comment on a blog, share a link, keep in touch.
7. Help us identify
   • Potential collaborators for the print edition (writers, graphic designers, copyeditors, marketing geniuses, etc.)
   • Potential advertisers, especially local businesses
   • Ideas for stories and profiles
8. Send feedback. It helps more than you know. Needless to say, positive feedback is especially welcome, but criticism, too, helps us improve.