Alpha UK

Nicky Gumbel


Nicky Gumbel is vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, a Church of England church in central London. He studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge, from
1973-1975 (M.A. Cantab) and practised as a barrister from 1977-1983.

In 1983, he went to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, to read theology (M.A. Oxon)and to train for ordination in the Church of England. He was awarded an honorary doctorate (Hon D. Phil) from the University of Gloucestershire in 2007 for his contribution to church life. He joined Holy Trinity Brompton as curate to Sandy Millar in 1986. He took over the running of Holy Trinity Brompton's Alpha course - a practical introduction to the Christian faith - in October 1990. The course grew rapidly and attracted wide interest. The first Alpha conference was held at Holy Trinity in May 1993 and in 1996 the Bishop of London appointed Nicky as an Alpha Chaplain. In 2005 he was appointed vicar of Holy Trinity
Brompton in succession to Sandy Millar. He became Vice President of Tear Fund in 2008.

More than 210,000 church leaders have been trained to run Alpha courses, which are now running in 163 countries. There are almost 8,500
courses running in the UK and over 42,500 world-wide. Eighty per cent
of the prisons in the UK are now running Alpha. An estimated 13 million
people have completed the course world-wide. In 1998, Alpha extended an ‘invitation to the nation’, inviting the whole of the UK to attend an
Alpha course. Similar national initiatives took place in 1999-2008 and another is set to take place in September 2009. Sir David Frost
presented a 10-part series on Alpha for ITV in autumn 2001 with a follow up series at the end of 2007.

Nicky Gumbel has written several books. Questions of Life - the Alpha course in book form - was published in 1993 and is the Alpha course syllabus in book format. It was declared 'Christian Book of the Year 1994' at the Christian Booksellers Convention and has sold more than a million copies world-wide. The evangelistic booklet Why Jesus? and its sister publication Why Christmas? have sold more than four million copies.

Nicky speaks regularly at national and international Alpha conferences.

He is married to Pippa. They live in central London and have three children, Henry, Jonathan and Rebecca.

Graham Tomlin

The Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is the Principal of St Paul’s Theological Centre(SPTC), based at Holy Trinity Brompton in London, the home of the Alpha
Course. SPTC is now part of St Mellitus College, an exciting new venture offering ordination training across London and beyond.
Graham was appointed Dean in 2007. He is also a member of the Theology Faculty of Oxford University.

He was born in Bristol, studied English Literature and Theology at Oxford, and worked in Insurance for two years before training for the
ordained ministry at Wycliffe. He was then curate of a church in Exeter, before returning to Oxford to be Chaplain of Jesus College and a tutor in Historical Theology and Evangelism at Wycliffe Hall, where he eventually became Vice Principal, before leaving to move to London in 2005.

He is a member of the Church of England’s College of Evangelists, and has led many parish and student evangelistic mission events. He is the
author of many articles and several books, including ‘The Power of the Cross: Theology and the Death of Christ in Paul, Luther and Pascal’
(based on his doctoral thesis - Paternoster 1999), 'The Provocative Church' (SPCK 2002), ‘Luther and his World’ (Lion 2002).

He is married to Janet and has two teenage children, Sam and Sian. He is a keen follower of various kinds of music and sport, especially
football, rugby and cricket.

Nicky and Sila Lee

Nicky and Sila Lee have been on the staff of an Anglican church in central London, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), since 1985. Previously Nicky
studied English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge (1973–1976). He then taught English in London and in Nagoya, Japan (1977-1982). Sila
studied Fine Art at Camberwell Art College from 1974–1977. Nicky and Sila married in 1976 and had their first child in 1980.

In 1985, having studied theology in Durham to train for ordination, Nicky was appointed curate to Sandy Millar at HTB where he and Sila ran
the Alpha Course and started The Marriage Preparation Course, a five week course for engaged couples preparing for marriage. In 1996 they started The Marriage Course, an eight week course designed to help married couples build a healthy marriage that will last a lifetime.
Over 4500 couples have completed these courses at HTB.

The Marriage Book, based on The Marriage Course and The Marriage Preparation Course, was published in August 2000 and has sold over
100,000 copies.

The Marriage Course was released on video in 2002 with a leaders’ guide and guest manual. The course is now being run in over 1700 locations in
the UK and abroad. The Marriage Preparation Course was published on DVD in 2004 with a guest manual and leaders’ and support couples’ guide.
The Marriage Conference, designed to equip couples to run The Marriage Course and The Marriage Preparation Course, is held twice a year at HTB and increasingly in other venues in the UK and around the world.

Nicky Lee was appointed associate vicar in July 2007 by Nicky Gumbel

Nicky and Sila also run The Parenting Course (for parents with children aged 0-12) and The Parenting Teenagers Course (for parents with teenage children). They are currently writing The Parenting Book, based on these two courses, and, in response to demand from other churches, they
plan to publish them with manuals and DVDs.

Nicky and Sila live in central London and have four children, Kirsty, Benj, Barny and Josh.

Pete Greig

Pete Greig is one of the founding champions of the 24-7 Prayer movement, and the Director of Prayer for Holy Trinity, Brompton in London, and a
facilitator for the Campus America initiative. 24-7 Prayer has grown rapidly and unexpectedly from a single night-and-day prayer vigil into
an interdenominational movement of prayer, mission
and justice that has touched more than a third of the nations on earth since 1999. Thanks to an innovative approach to spirituality and culture, 24-7 has captured the attention of newspapers and magazines from Rolling Stone to Readers’ Digest and was the subject of a British
television documentary.

Pete Greig lives in Guildford, England with his wife Samie and two children, and they are actively engaged in a missional community and
training hub called the Boiler Room.

He preaches and teaches all over the world, and has authored or co-authored the following books: Red Moon Rising, The Vision & The Vow, God on Mute and PunkMonk.

Tim Hughes

Tim Hughes is the Worship Director at Holy Trinity Brompton, London. He is also the Director of Worship Central, a school of worship to train and
equip worship leaders, musicians and worshippers, with a vision to encounter God, equip the worshipper and empower the local church. They
run training conferences as well as online resources at worshipcentral.org.

His songs include ‘Here I Am to Worship’ (Dove award winning song),‘Beautiful One,’ ‘Consuming Fire’ and ‘Happy Day’. He is the author of
two books, ‘Here I am to worship’ and ‘Holding Nothing back’.

Tim is married to Rachel and they have a daughter called Phoebe.

Paul Cowley

Paul Cowley was born in Manchester in 1955. At the age of 15 he was expelled from school, lived on the streets for a short while and then moved into
a life of crime. This led to a prison sentence and, upon release, Paul joined the Army, throwing himself into his army career for the next 15
years. During this time he was involved in six tours in Northern Ireland, two in the Falklands and was attached to Special Forces. He left the army in 1991, at the rank of Sergeant, after
serving in the Army Physical Training Corps. His career continued in the work of fitness training where he ran two fitness centres in London.

Paul became a Christian after doing an Alpha course at Holy Trinity Brompton in 1994. He became involved in prison ministry as a volunteer
in December 1996 and then in July 1997, due to an increased demand for the Alpha course, he joined the staff at Holy Trinity Brompton as Staff
Pastor for Prisons. The same year an office was set up to develop a strategy and move the work forward. This later included developing the
charity Caring for Ex-Offenders which aims to reintegrate ex-offenders back into society upon their release.

In 2002 Paul discovered that Alpha was being run in the Armed Forces and in May 2003 Alpha for Forces was launched to help support and encourage the use of the Alpha course in the Armed Forces.

Paul is Executive Director of Alpha for Prisons, Caring for Ex-Offenders and Alpha for Forces. He and his team support and co-ordinate the growth and organisation of these ministries across the
country and increasingly around the world. In addition Paul also heads up the various areas of Social Transformation that Holy Trinity Brompton is involved in.

Paul is married to Amanda and has two children, Clinton and Phoebe. In June 2002 Paul was ordained by the Church of England after completing a three year degree course at Oakhill Theological College.

Jamie Haith

Jamie Haith is an ordained Anglican minister on the staff of Holy Trinity Brompton. He has been involved with Alpha, both at home and abroad, for
more than 14 years and is now the director of studentalpha, as well as heading up the HTB Student programme.

Jamie is married to Andy and they have three daughters, Abby, Thea and Lilianna.

Having joined the staff of HTB in 1992 as assistant to Nicky Gumbel, Jamie remains involved in the running and development of the Alpha
course at HTB: training teams, leading small groups, and teaching andleading worship on courses and conferences. As well as this, he is
involved with the growth of the community of students at Holy Trinity Brompton. Jamie was recently appointed Alpha Chaplain by the Bishop of
London in 2008.

Sandy Millar

The Rt. Rev'd John Alexander Kirkpatrick Millar(Sandy) practised for 10 years as a barrister before being ordained into the Church of England in 1976. He joined the staff of Holy Trinity Brompton as curate in 1976, becoming Vicar in 1985. He was Chelsea Area Dean from 1989-1994. He was installed as a Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral (Pancratius)in
1997. In October 2003, in a unique initiative for the Church of England, he was inducted into the additional role of Priest-in-Charge of the north London parish of St. Mark Tollington Park. After 20 years as Vicar of HTB, he stood down in July 2005 and moved to St. Mark Tollington Park to devote more time to his role at that church.

On 27th November 2005, he was consecrated in Uganda as an Assistant Bishop in the Province of Uganda, in a joint initiative of the Archbishop of Uganda, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. In February 2006 he was licensed to act as an assistant Bishop in the Diocese of London at a major service led by the Bishop of London in St Paul's Cathedral. He now divides his time between his role as
priest-in-charge of St Mark's Tollington Park and his role in the London diocese.

He is married to Annette and they have four children and five grandchildren.