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JULY - OCTOBER 2009alpha.org
No.47
UK EDITION
alpha News
PAGE
s22-23
INSIDE: Who we are 2, International Week 2-11, Directory 30, Conferences 31, Publications 32
PAGE
13
My friendBear Gryllsgot me to Alpha
Getting readyto invite theUK to Alpha
100 NATIONS
00 NATIONS
AT A
T A
LPH
PH
A’S
’S
BIG WEEK
IG WEEK
Full reportsand pictures
PAGES
2-11
This is servantministry, this isserving the churches,this is building up thecapacity of all ourchurches to beeffective evangelistsand especially tocommunicate to the young, to the nextgeneration
THE BISHOP OF LONDON
‘’
PAGE 2JULY - OCTOBER 2009
Alpha News
Alpha People
Archbishop’s welcome toLambeth Palace
ARCHBISHOPof Canterbury Dr Rowan Williamsled a special service of Morning Prayer in theCrypt Chapel of Lambeth Palace for the bishopsattending Alpha International week.During the service in the 13th centuryundercroft, he led prayer ‘for all involved in Alpha International week, for the work of Alphaaround the world and the ministry of Holy TrinityBrompton.’ After the service the guests were invited to abreakfast reception in one of the state rooms atLambeth Palace.
...and Dean John joins in
AMONGdelegates attending the Bishops’ Stream atthe conference was one man who knows more about Alpha than most –the Very Rev’d John Irvine, Dean ofCoventry. John Irvine was a curate at Holy TrinityBrompton in the early 1980s when he took over therunning of the fledgling four-week Alpha course fromfounder Charles Marnham. He extended the courseto 10 weeks and added a weekend away beforeleaving to plant a church in 1985.
1500 church leadersfrom 100 nations meetfor Alpha’s big week
Roman Catholic archbishopsand bishops, 21 Anglicans, aswell as Baptists, Lutherans,and Pentecostals.The biennial event is anopportunity for Alphaleaders throughout the worldto meet together forencouragement andenvisioning for the yearsahead. The week included anAlpha conference, amarriage conference, ayouth and students event, aswell as other training eventsand seminars.The Archbishop of Canterbury led a specialservice of Morning Prayerin the Crypt Chapel of Lambeth Place for thebishops attending AlphaInternational week.More than 100 Catholicparticipants of the weekattended a special mass atWestminster Cathedral ledby Archbishop Luis AugustoCastro Quiroga of Colombia.After the service ThomasMcMahon, Catholic Bishopof Brentwood, UK, welcomedthe Catholic bishops to areception at Archbishop’sHouse. Bishop McMahonpraised Alpha, saying, ‘Alphaserves to draw all thechurches together in termsof the gospel.”Bishop of Durham, TomWright spoke on the Tuesdayevening on the urgency of the gospel.The Bishop of Londonattended the first of two‘News from the Nations’sessions, where representativesfrom the 100 countries spokeof how Alpha was helping tobring Christian faith to theirnations.Alpha representatives fromcountries including India,Egypt, Albania, Mauritius,Colombia, the United States,France, Russia, China andRwanda spoke movingly of what they had seen.Closing the session, the
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PETE GREIG, founder of the international 24-7 Prayer movement, spoke on several occasionsduring the week.Pete, who took charge of prayer at Alpha at the beginning of this year, also organised the week’s non-stop 24-7 prayer room, situated close to thechurch, which was visited by hundreds of delegates. A full programme of events consisted of many times of worship, which included celloworship, a string quartet and guitar.During the week activities included a PolishCatholic service and prayer ministry for Alpha teams around the world.
DELEGATES FROM 100 NATIONS
It’s a
WELCOME TO ALPHA NEWS
Alpha News is published threetimes a year to keep church leadersand congregations up-to-date withthe spread of the Alpha course andassociated ministries. The AlphaCourse is an introduction to theChristian faith which has seenextraordinary success at stimulatingfaith among those who are notchurchgoers and also given a newdynamism to many existingChristians.The number of registered churchesworldwide at the end of each yearsince 1992 was: YearCoursesAttendees
(cumulative)
1992 51993 200 4,6001994 750 25,0001995 2,500 100,0001996 5,000 400,0001997 6,500 800,0001998 10,500 1.3m1999 14,200 2 m2000 17,000 2.7m2001 19,800 3.8m2002 24,400 4.7m2003 27,340 5.7m2004 29,0516.7m2005 31,1678m2006 32,592 9.3m2007 35,092 10.8m2008
**
35,385 12.3m200942,530
If you wish to know more about Alphaplease see page 30. If you wish toadvertise in any edition of Alpha News,please contact:Tel: +44(0) 845 644 7544e-mail:advertising@alphacourse.orgNote:The acceptance of advertisementsdoes not indicate editorial endorsement
Number of registered courses insome countries: Australia 2,000Finland650France 530Germany 1,350India 5,296Netherlands 1,132Nigeria300Romania430Russia 336South Africa 830South Korea 4,873Sweden 313Switzerland608UK 8,260USA 9,110
Alpha InternationalHoly Trinity Brompton,Brompton Road, London SW7 1JATel:+44(0) 845 644 7544Fax:+44(0) 20 7589 3390e-mail:info@alphacourse.orgwebsite:alphacourse.org
**
From 2008 a new system of counting Alphacourses was introduced to take into account awide variety of different locations rather than just churches
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MICHAEL Timmis, head of theworld’s biggest prison ministryPrison Fellowship International,attended the week with his wifeNancy. Alpha for Prisons worksclosely with Prison Fellowshipthroughout the world. Michael, apractising lawyer and businessman,is a member of the Alpha Board andthe Alpha Catholic Board. He tookover the Chairmanship of PrisonFellowship from the charity’sfounder Chuck Colson in 2006. Heis also Chairman of PrisonFellowship in the USA.
MORE than 1500 delegates from 100countries – including 60 archbishops andbishops – attended the Alpha InternationalWeek at Holy Trinity Brompton, London, inJune.
The ‘Bishops’ stream’ was hosted by the Bishopof London, Richard Chartres and included 23
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Alpha News
JULY - OCTOBER 2009
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global vision
COME TOGETHER FOR ALPHA’S INTERNATIONAL WEEK AT HOLY TRINITY BROMPTON
●
10-minute highlights film
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The main talks–audio and video
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Video reports –country by country
ON THE WEB
SEE ALPHAFRIENDS
.
ORG
Bishop said, ‘I have seen theextraordinary life [Alpha] hasbrought to the church in this globalcrossroads of London and throughoutthe country.‘One of my brother bishops said tome, “What I find amazing about thisis: there is no Alpha movement. Theyare not trying to set up their owninternational fellowship.”‘This is servant ministry; this isserving the churches; this is buildingup the capacity of all our churches tobe effective evangelists and especiallyto communicate to the young, to thenext generation.‘Very simply, one of the reasons Istand here, humbled, grateful, isbecause I believe that we are notworking for the survival of our owninstitutions. We are together reallygrowing in unity in the way that youdon’t if you are a sort of specialist inthese matters.‘We are really growing in unitybecause we are all of us looking in thesame direction and the direction isJesus Christ - the future hope of thisfragmented world. My heart is full of gratitude and rejoicing.’On the last night of the event,delegates gathered for a celebratorysupper in the church gardensfollowed by a prayer and praise partyled by Pete Greig, Tim Hughes and theWorship Central team.
Nicky Gumbel addressesthe conference at HolyTrinity Brompton
Inset:
other scenes fromthe week
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