Alpha UK

6 September 2000

High security prisons are joining thousands of churches across the UK to 'invite the nation to supper' this month.

Greta Greenwood, who is featured on 1500 billboards around the UK advertising the Alpha course, launches the invitation to supper outside Dartmoor prison, Devon.

Supper parties will be hosted in churches, restaurants and homes throughout the country during September - and more than 40 prisons will put on special events for inmates. The initiative aims to introduce people to the fast-growing 'Alpha' course, which offers non-churchgoers 'an opportunity to explore the meaning of life'.

Prisons Minister Paul Boateng has praised the Alpha course, saying; Alpha is making a valuable contribution to the spiritual life of our prisons and has helped many make the change to a new life free of crime and drugs.

Most prisons cannot stage full suppers because of restrictions on communal meals, but opportunities for prisoners to eat together and hear about the 'Alpha' course are being co-ordinated by prison chaplains and officers with help from local volunteers. Tea and cakes will be provided at HMP Highpoint, Suffolk, and in prisons on Guernsey and the Isle of Man. 300 inmates at Dartmoor prison will be served doughnuts and coffee, supplied by a local store, in their exercise yard.

Across the UK, hundreds of thousands of invitations to supper are being issued by churches to local people. Many suppers will be held in unusual venues, including a lighthouse in the North East, a hairdresser's salon in Derby, an amusement park in Margate, and several stately homes and castles around the country.

The 'Alpha' course is a practical and contemporary introduction to the Christian faith. It has become increasingly successful in the UK over the last 5 years, and is now running in 7,000 churches of all denominations including Anglican, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and Salvation Army.

To coincide with the supper initiative, the churches are collaborating in a nationwide poster campaign for the 'Alpha' course, which includes more than 1,500 prominent billboard sites across the country. Seven cities will host large-scale events to debate the question: 'Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?'

The Rev'd Nicky Gumbel, Alpha Chaplain at Holy Trinity Brompton, London, the Anglican church which has pioneered the Alpha course, said, With an Alpha course now within easy reach of almost everyone in the country, this is an opportunity for us to invite everyone to supper and to say, 'Come and see'.

The suppers, like the 'Alpha' course itself, will be informal, non-threatening and fun - and provide an opportunity to consider some of life's big questions.

ENDS

For further information, contact:
Mark Elsdon-Dew in the Alpha Press Office on +44 (0)845 644 7544 or +44 (0)7623 975422 (pager)