Alpha

In 1977, Charles Marnham, a clergyman at Holy Trinity Brompton, London, began looking for a means of presenting the basic principles of the Christian faith to new Christians in a relaxed and informal setting. He devised the Alpha Course. The talks addressed such questions as 'Who is Jesus?', 'How and why do I pray?' and 'How does God guide us?'. When Charles Marnham moved on, others took over leadership of the course and made their own changes. By the time Nicky Gumbel took over Alpha in 1990, the course was a central feature of the church's life, with the number of participants regularly totalling around 100 people on each course. The syllabus of the course is contained in the Book "Questions of Life" by Reverend Nicky Gumbel. Thousands of Alpha courses are now running in many countries and it has been translated into many different languages. For more information about Alpha USA, click here.