History of Alpha
The following pages contains information about the alpha@wefc ministry in WEFC. For those interested in finding out more about our Alpha Courses, please feel free to browse through our What is Alpha? pages.
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The Alpha Course is a basic course on the Christian faith, commonly advertised as “an opportunity to explore the meaning of life”. It operates through unpressured (albeit directed) discussion in a non-threatening environment.
Originally begun in the Anglican church, it has subsequently been used by a variety of denominations and groups and is currently offered in 152 countries by many different denominations including Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal and Orthodox churches.
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Alpha was started by the Reverend Charles Marnham, a curate at Holy Trinity, Brompton, a Church of England parish in London. It started as a course for church members on the basics of the Christian faith but then began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith.
Over a period of twenty years, the programme was continually adapted in accordance with feedback until in the early 1990s the Alpha Course started gaining worldwide attention.
In 1990 the Reverend Nicky Gumbel, at that time a curate at Holy Trinity took over the running of the course at the invitation of the Reverend Sandy Millar, the then vicar, and oversaw its revision and expansion, evolving it into what it currently is today.
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By 2007 it was reported that more than 13 million people worldwide had attended an Alpha Course. Today, more than 33,500 Alpha Courses are offered in more than 160 countries and in many Christian denominations.
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