Justin Welby: Alpha is now used in more Catholic than Anglican parishes [christiantoday.com]

Justin Welby: Alpha is now used in more Catholic than Anglican parishes

Published 19 June 2014 | Ruth Gledhill



Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby, pictured here in 2013, met this week to discuss human trafficking.

The pioneering Alpha course which began in one parish in the Church of England nearly four decades ago is now being used in more Catholic than Anglican parishes, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

Archbishop Welby revealed the latest phenomenal success of the evangelisation course, with its strong emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit, after meeting the Pope in Rome where he was accompanied by Rev Nicky Gumbel, vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton.

Speaking to Christopher Lamb for The Tablet, the Catholic weekly, Archbishop Welby said: "Every now and then I just like to remind people that it [Alpha] started in the Church of England," adding that he recently had to convince a French Catholic friend that the course had not originated in France. "We [Catholics and Anglicans] are working additionally on evangelisation, and that illustrates the breadth of the relationship. The Catholic Church is much bigger than us and far more widely extended, but we also bring something to the relationship. Alpha is a gift of the spirit to the church of the world not merely to the Anglican Communion let alone the Church of England."

Gumbel, an old friend of the Archbishop who has close ties with Holy Trinity Brompton in Knightsbridge, the home of Alpha, confirmed the Archbishop's comment on the Catholic uptake of the course.


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