Alpha UK

27 August 2003

The UK's biggest annual Christian advertising initiative is to use a poster design featuring three young people this September. The Alpha Initiative is supported by 7,000 churches of all denominations across the country.

The 7,000 churches are set to run Alpha courses this autumn and will be distributing leaflets across their parishes inviting people to supper parties in churches, homes, halls, pubs and restaurants. The suppers are designed to introduce local people to the Alpha course.

This is the sixth annual poster initiative in the UK and it is aiming to increase the profile of Alpha among non-churchgoers still further offering an opportunity to explore the meaning of life. The new designs will be displayed on 1,300 billboards and 3,000 buses across the UK - as well as in tens of thousands of churches and homes - advertising the Alpha course.

The campaign forms part of the churches' plan to reverse the decline in attendance over the past twenty years. Only 7.5% of the population now regularly attend church. Many churches running Alpha report that their congregations are growing.

More than 1.5 million people throughout Britain have completed the Alpha course - a 15 session introduction to Christianity running in churches, schools, universities and prisons. Last September a MORI poll revealed more than eight million adults could identify Alpha as a Christian course, nearly a million more than the previous June.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been a strong supporter of Alpha, saying, "What Alpha has to offer is a unique mixture of Christian content and Christian style.'

The Alpha course is a practical and contemporary introduction to the Christian faith and provides a relaxed and informal opportunity for participants to make up their own mind about Christianity. It is constructed around one meeting a week for ten weeks and has become increasingly successful in the UK over the past eight years.

The Revd Nicky Gumbel, who presents the Alpha material, said, "We have heard so many wonderful stories of people - many of them young - whose lives have been changed by God through the Alpha course in churches of all denominations throughout the country.'

ENDS

For further information, contact:
Mark Elsdon-Dew, Communications Director
+44 (0)845 644 7544 or +44 (0)7623 975422 (pager)

----------------------------

Notes for Editors
The Alpha Course

Devised in the UK, the Alpha course is supported by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and by leaders of all the main denominations. The course is now running in over 25, 905 churches and 137 countries around the world.

The Alpha course is now running in 132 of the 160 prisons in the UK and in many of the country's universities. Alpha materials are now available in 48 different languages including Shona, French, Croatian, Chinese and Russian.