In 1990 there were three Alpha courses running each year. Seven years later, there were 7,000 in 58 countries worldwide. What is the reason for the extraordinary success of this Anglican introduction to Christianity, which is now being adopted by Catholics? The religion correspondent of The Times presents an A to Z of Alpha.

THE phone call from a tiny hamlet in southern England made me want to weep. The caller was an Anglican clergyman?s wife whose husband had retired some years ago. In his place had been installed an evangelical new-broom, fond of guitars and worship songs, determined to sweep out the dusty cobwebs from the past.

One of his first innovations was to introduce the Alpha course. The retired couple had tactfully stayed away from the church, feeling their presence might be irksome to the newcomers, and had found an alternative place to worship. But the wife was visited by a mission from their church, urging her to come along to the course which was about to start. Pleased to be asked, she duly turned up.

She had called me the following day because she was disconcerted to find that the Christianity she had followed faithfully, through the vicissitudes of the Book of Common Prayer, the 1928 prayer book, Series One, Two and Three and the 1980 Alternative Service Book, bore little resemblance to what was happening now in her parish church. The church, which had previously struggled to attract a congregation of a dozen, was packed and she was given a warm welcome. Many of those present had done Alpha several times, in spite of explicit recommendations from its founders that the course is for new Christians or non-Christian enquirers and should only be done once. In spite of a lifetime of Christianity, my caller, in her seventies, had come away feeling sad, lonely and an outsider. She wanted to know whether she should return for the second of the 15 sessions.

If bums on seats is the aim ? and there is no doubt that in the Church of England it is, whatever the spin doctors might say to convince us otherwise ? then Alpha works. There can be no question about that. As this elderly woman herself noticed sadly, her husband?s once-struggling church was packed and, more to the point as far as church authorities were concerned, the dynamic new congregation was fast replenishing the formerly empty coffers, with any surplus funds overflowing merrily into the diocesan bank account.

For an established Church of England still recovering from the humiliating losses it suffered in property speculation in the 1980s, Alpha, with its ability to attract the young, wealthy middle classes and keep them there, has fallen out of the blue like manna from heaven after 40 years in a post-war wilderness of declining congregations, failing organs and leaking roofs. And if it works, why fix it? Alpha does work, and after trying it out for myself, I cannot see anything that needs fixing, or at least fixing any more urgently than the thousands of other loose fixtures and fittings currently supporting our beloved Anglican structure on a base which might yet prove to be solid as the rock of St Peter.

My one qualm, however, is shared by others in the ever-expanding world of religious reporting. It just seems too good to be true. There are vicars, and now Roman Catholic priests, a well as Methodists, Congregationalists and dozens of others, throughout England and the world who after years of struggling against the odds have tried Alpha and experienced a phenomenal burst of growth. Of course it has not worked for everyone, but the stories of success are extraordinary in religious institutions that only a decade ago seemed doomed to post-millennial extinction. No one seems able to say just what it is that lies behind this resurgence in Christianity. Some fear a spiritual South Sea Bubble or a religious equivalent of the Wall Street crash, destined to collapse around everyone?s ears.

Others insist it is simply the Holy Spirit, working for once in a not-so-mysterious way, and of course it is impossible to argue with that explanation without seeming to be incorrigibly cynical, or without provoking a new and formidable evangelistic outreach in one?s own direction. Quite a few are afraid to ask any such questions about the success of Alpha, as if even posing them might bring about the feared disaster, and Alpha, along with these thousands of new and reborn Christians, might disappear into the ether like so many puffs of sanctuary smoke. Much has been written about Alpha, and some of it makes for hilarious reading.

One of the most entertaining Alpha critiques can be found on Ian Paisley?s web-site on the Internet, and was actually brought to my attention by the Revd Nicky Gumbel himself. Gumbel is Alpha chaplain at Holy Trinity Brompton, in Knightsbridge, where the course originated 20 years ago, under the leadership of the then curate, the Revd Charles Marnham. Anyone interested in Alpha should take a look at how the course is seen through the eyes of such Presbyterians, because at least they are not shy of posing questions. The Revd Paul Fitton of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster has gone further. He has asked: The Alpha course: is it Bible-based or Hell-inspired?

More than 7,000 Alpha courses are now running in 58 countries. As Mr Fitton rightly points out, if it continues to advance at its present rate, its teaching will permeate into most churches and influence most Christians. But he goes on to say: If we examine the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount, we discover that the false prophet preached, and prayed, and performed great signs and wonders in the name of Christ. He notes that the course began at an Anglican church. The Anglican Church as a whole has tolerated error for a very long time, he writes. The Anglican Church has embraced the error of the Mass even though one of the Thirty Nine Articles denounces it as a ?blasphemous fable and dangerous deceit?. It has permitted ungodly men, men who have no knowledge or experience of the rebirth, to minister. He includes a personal attack on Mr Gumbel. If Nicky Gumbel were the spiritual man he and others claim him to be, he would not be a curate in the Church of England. God calls men out of apostasy, not into it.

Mr Fitton evinces surprise that the Catholic Church should be embracing Alpha. The Bible teaches that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, he says, citing Ephesians 2:8,9. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that those who believe that doctrine are ?anathema? ? they are cursed.

But even he concedes that what Gumbel says on the person and work of Christ on the whole is acceptable and that the same applies to his dealing with sin. His doubts seem to centre around a concern that Alpha represents a conveyor-belt Christianity, and a concern that any teaching that the Holy Spirit has changed the sinner from within is absent from the course. There is conversion here, but it is conversion to a Christian lifestyle rather than a conversion to Christ, he argues.

He also criticises what is known as the Holy Spirit weekend, when course members go away together to a retreat house or somewhere similar and are taught the doctrine and tradition of the Third Person of the Trinity.

Reports from these weekends are varied, and not having been on one myself it is difficult to comment accurately. It is common however for members of the course, on these weekends, to have direct experiences of or in the Spirit, to be slain in the Spirit, to speak in tongues and to enjoy other of the gifts referred to by St Paul when writing to the Corinthians. While Protestant churches worldwide were in the throes ? and I use that word deliberately ? of the Toronto Blessing, there appears to have been a stage when more extreme manifestations of these gifts made themselves present during the Holy Spirit weekends. But from various reports, the Blessing seems to be fading a little into the background, and a more normative Pentecostal or charismatic Christianity emerging, at least in the evangelical wing of the Church of England. Certainly, though, whatever their objective response to the Alpha teachings, few people seem to return from these Holy Spirit weekends unchanged in some, if not many, respects.

It is difficult to see how it can be argued, given the Christian precedents for this style of teaching, how those who then go on to make a commitment to Christ are not undergoing a true conversion. Mr Gumbel himself concedes, after all, that Alpha is merely an introduction. It is not, and has never attempted to be, a complete induction, or a replacement for any traditional catechesis in any Church. As Bishop Ambrose Griffiths of Hexham and Newcastle states: It is not a complete exposition of Catholic doctrine. No introductory course could possibly do that. But it doesn?t contain anything contrary to Catholic doctrine.

Other attacks on Alpha have borne headlines such as Nicky Gumbel unmasked, and argue that it presents the Gospel according to Gumbel, or that it fails to place enough emphasis on the second person of the Trinity, Christ. The Alpha course is installed in many local Catholic churches, reads one critique from a Surrey-based journal, Vanguard, which I had never come across before until, again, Mr Gumbel brought it to my attention. If there is anything unbiblical about Catholicism, Alpha is not the thing to expose it. Rather it smooths everything over and makes people cosy in their error. The chief concern on the Protestant side, however, seems to be that belief in the Alpha teaching might be mistaken in the believer for a true Christian faith.

It is difficult to track down any equally fascinating anti-Alpha writings on the Catholic side. Chief among concerns, as reported in The Tablet in May, seems to be that the method might be too individualistic and too focused on a personal relationship with God, with insufficient emphasis on the church community. Fr Andrew Faley, of the Catholic Education Service, admits the opportunities for personal renewal offered by Alpha, but emphasises the importance of the wider picture, as offered in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

There is a note of surprise, probably unintentional, in the comment from the Catholic Alpha office that Catholics who have read the Alpha material have found it to be remarkably free from anything which we might object to. The office admits that, for some, the evangelical approach has been a cause for concern. But, it says, Alpha can be seen as one means of responding to the call to evangelisation contained in Pope Paul VI?s letter Evangelii Nuntiandi and John Paul II?s Tertio Millennio Adveniente. It goes on: Alpha might seem, to some, individualistic in its approach. It does encourage us to enter into a relationship with God as individuals as well as as Church. Alpha?s emphasis on the individual has the advantage of speaking to the individualistic mindset that many have today. Our identity as Catholic Christians is very much as part of the church community. But this sense of Church is perhaps not something which people can respond to in the early stages.

As the daughter of a clergyman, I had never felt any personal desire or need to attend an Alpha course myself. But when I set out to write this article, it became clear that I had no alternative but to attend at least part of one. I was placed in a group with three cradle Catholics, all women aged under 25. They had no plans to leave their mother Church, but were tremendously excited by what they were learning on Alpha. It put flesh on the bones of their faith, they explained. Before, while believing faithfully in the Catholic teachings they had learned from childhood, these doctrines were so much a part of their internal emotional and spiritual fabric that, if ever challenged to explain how they could be believing Catholics at the end of the twentieth century, they had found themselves at a loss for words. They believed in the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection of the Body and the Ascension, but could not say why. Alpha was giving them the language to explain their faith when facing such challenges, in phrases that they and their secular friends could easily understand.

Others on the course had no background in any faith whatsoever. Some were sceptical and challenging, and were there because their wives or husbands had themselves been converted and had persuaded them to try it for themselves. It was as if they wanted to believe, but were struggling to find it credible. Among these people, especially the men, fear of what their peers at work or on the football pitch would think if they suddenly became a Christian played a large part in making a commitment difficult.

Then there were others for whom Alpha had clearly come as a lifeline up which they were climbing from some unimaginable abyss of grief, despair or disaster. There were mothers who had lost babies, alcoholics who had lost families, husbands who had lost wives, addicts who had lost everything. These people did not care whether Alpha was not Calvinist enough, or fell into the Presbyterian sin of being too ecumenical, or was too individualistic for some tastes. The young Catholic women I spoke to were the most convincing when it came to theological or doctrinal challenges to Alpha. But it was these others, struggling with such courage to escape their personal pits of horror who were the most remarkable and the most humbling.

There is a saying that religion is for people who are frightened of going to hell, spirituality is for those who have been there. Alpha, with its Christian version of group therapy on courses structured around a meal, a talk and a few hymns, offers undeniable salvation of the spirit for such people for whom day-to-day living is a form of hell on earth.

There have been suggestions in some quarters that the Alpha spirituality has parallels with New Age spirituality, but the Alpha manual that is used, Mr Gumbel?s core course book, Questions of Life, and other Alpha material are all unashamedly and unrepentantly Christian in their outlook and content. Alpha began 20 years ago and, for at least 10 years, remained exclusive to Holy Trinity Brompton and its early offshoots, or church plants. The Revd Charles Marnham?s wife, Tricia, thought up the name. It began as a four-week course with about four people on it. The Revd John Irvine, now vicar of St Barnabas Kensington, one of Holy Trinity?s plants, took it over in 1981 when he succeeded Mr Marnham as curate. He lengthened it to 10 weeks and ran it for four years.

It then passed into the hands of the Revd Nicky Lee, the next new ordinand to become curate at Holy Trinity, who also ran it for four years, before taking it with him to another Holy Trinity plant, St Paul?s in Onslow Square. It was only in 1990 that Nicky Gumbel, widely and mistakenly believed to be the founder and architect of the course, took it over.

But it is true that Gumbel?s influence on it has been profound, and he has written most of the accompanying course literature. When he began his work with Alpha, there were just three courses running a year, with about 100 people in total. By 1997, there were nearly 7,000 in 58 countries worldwide, and independent Alpha offices running in many churches and countries. This year, it is estimated that nearly 9,000 churches will run the course. The number of people who are doing or have done Alpha is now incalculable. And this is before it has even taken off properly in the United States, where it is just beginning to make an impact. Of the churches worldwide doing it so far, more than half are in Britain. But in what looks like the beginnings of another explosion, 3,000 separate churches in the United States have now ordered the Alpha materials.

By comparison, the number of Catholic churches doing the course remains relatively small, at about 200 in Britain, but again the early signs of growth are evident. Enquiries have been received from Italy, Argentina and Lebanon, a conference was held this month in Vienna and an information day for leaders in the Netherlands in April. Catholic Alpha officers have visited the Vatican.

Even in the Catholic Church, there seems to be a bit of the I prayed for a parking space and the next minute God found me one mentality, which always makes me think of the thousands of starving people in Africa I pray for every week to little or no effect. This approach seems evidenced by a hi-tech testimony reported on the Catholic Alpha web-site. Fr Tom and the northern team have just completed a series of training evenings for 80 leaders in the Leeds diocese. One priest left quite unhappy with the whole thing, but prayed: ?Lord, show me very clearly if this is of you.? The next morning he cleared his e-mail to find a letter randomly sent by a woman in the United States who had had a deep conversion experience on Alpha and had since returned to the Catholic Church. He is now convinced ? the Lord will use every channel.

The fundamental change Mr Gumbel effected to the course, and to which he credits its explosion, came after he found that many non-Christians wanted to sign up for Alpha. It had been designed by his predecessors for new Christians, but not for people with no Christian background or church-going experience at all. Mr Gumbel deliberately changed its emphasis to an evangelistic tool rather than an expository one. Once we did that, for people outside the Church, it exploded, he said, because there are just so many more people outside the Church than there are in the Church.

Mr Gumbel is justifiably anxious to clear up some confusion surrounding Alpha. Alpha is not intended to replace anything else, he says. We are only offering it. We are willing to help any church that wants to run it. But we are not trying to get anybody to do it. He adds: We are not suggesting Alpha is the only way to evangelise, or even the best way.

Catholic parishes began running it about two years ago, after Bishop Ambrose Griffiths sent some people from his Church to an Alpha conference. Mr Gumbel was then asked to organise an Alpha conference specifically for the Catholic Church, and has since done four, three of them at Westminster Cathedral.

We were invited to do these conferences and felt it was right to respond to that, says Mr Gumbel. The first one, at the cathedral, was full up months before the date, with both priests and lay people, so we put on an overflow conference, and then a third one. We loved doing it. We found the Catholics so warm. There was so much humility and love. We learned so much.

He is as astonished by the success of Alpha as the rest of the Church. It never once occurred to me that Alpha would take off like this, he says. We have simply responded to the interest. We put on our very first conference, for the Church of England in London, because we spent so much time on the telephone answering questions to clergy who had heard what was happening and wanted to know more.

Criticisms are met with a masterly turning of the other cheek. I do not feel we have been attacked particularly, he says. I have not come across particularly aggressive publicity. On the whole we have been supported by the hierarchy. Regarding Catholic criticism of the approach, he is charmingly puzzled. I don?t quite know what is meant, he says.

Mr Gumbel does not believe Alpha is in conflict with any Christian theology. After three years studying theology at Oxford, he is entitled to say that with some confidence. He started out as a law student at Trinity, Cambridge, and during his first year there his own Christian faith came alive, as he puts it, through reading the New Testament.

His father was a barrister who qualified in England in the early 1930s. He was disbarred in Germany because he was Jewish. His mother had been baptised but was not a church-goer. Amazingly, Mr Gumbel did not even know of his father?s religion until he was 14. The whole thing was so painful to my father that he did not want anyone to know he was German or Jewish, he says. He cut himself off totally from his past. I never spoke to him about it, and he would not speak about anything that led back to that. Many of his family had been killed in concentration camps. He got out easily because of being called to the bar here. He got his parents out in 1939, and his sister, but I have no idea what happened to the rest of his family and he never said anything about it.

He lost his house, he lost everything. He came here and started life from scratch. In 1949 Walter Gumbel married Muriel, also a barrister, who at one stage served as vice-chairman of the Greater London Council. Both Mr Gumbel?s parents died in the 1980s. He was sent to Eton and his sister, also a barrister, to St Paul?s.

Asked whether finding out about his Jewish ancestry had an enormous impact, Mr Gumbel says: You would need a psychiatrist to answer that one. But he adds: Obviously I was surprised.

Inevitably, Mr Gumbel, who is now 43, and who met his wife Pippa through an assignation at a nightclub in the King?s Road, Chelsea, was destined for the bar himself. But while at Cambridge his room-mate, the aforementioned Nicky Lee, introduced him to religion.

His then girlfriend, now his wife, said they had become Christians, which terrified me, both as an expression and also as an idea, he says. So I thought I would investigate it. Because of my secular background I knew absolutely nothing about it. I picked up a Bible I had from RE at school and started reading it. I just read it the whole way through for two days. At the end, I was convinced it was true. I had a choice. Everything in me wanted to say ?no?. But I knew it was true, and reluctantly I said ?yes?. And I suddenly discovered it was what I had been looking for all my life, without realising it.

He moved to London for his bar finals, and by chance his parents? parish church was Holy Trinity, Brompton. He started attending at a time when the Revd Sandy Millar, now the vicar, had just become curate, in the 1970s, and there were few people aged under 50 in the congregation. Mr Gumbel was invited to attend the first-ever home group started by Mr Millar.

He remained a working barrister until 1983. My father had put me down at birth for a set of tax chambers, he says. He wisely saw that tax would be the one area of law that would never die. Sadly, it was not what I wanted to do. He turned to crime, as it were, and then common law, where he gained experience in divorce and family law that proved invaluable when he at last followed his true vocation, to become a clergyman. After ordination in 1986, he looked at nine parishes, but was turned away by every one. They put it very politely but they did not quite have room, he said. I do not blame them one bit. They obviously had very good judgement.

So it was back to Holy Trinity Brompton, where his friend Nicky Lee, now the curate there, asked him to help out with the Alpha talks, and then Mr Millar invited him to join the staff. In spite of his obvious gifts, Mr Gumbel does not for some reason seem destined for high office in the Church. In fact, he was in danger of becoming the Church?s longest-serving curate when the then Bishop of London, Dr David Hope, now Archbishop of York, made him an official Alpha chaplain and thus made room for another curate at Holy Trinity.

But then, Mr Gumbel does not seem to want high office, nor indeed does he seek any of the credit for the Alpha phenomenon. The wonderful thing about it is that you cannot really put a name to it, he says. There is no need for people running a course in, say, Zimbabwe, to know anything about us or HTB or anything else. It is just Alpha. That is how it should be.

All criticisms of Alpha seemed to vanish into nothingess when Mr Gumbel finished telling his story. He must have told it thousands of times, but it was still hugely moving. It is difficult to see how any Church could fail to benefit, at least in part if not wholly, from a wisely-used Alpha course.

Coincidentally, although of course this was nothing to do with God, the clergyman?s wife referred to at the start of this article called me back as I completed my researches. I had not given any opinion to her either for or against Alpha the first time round, but she had shown enormous courage and gone back to her old church to complete the course. She had now finished it, and seemed content.

More importantly, she felt she belonged once more to her church. But she had one confession to make: she had decided she simply could not go along to the Holy Spirit weekend. Instead, she had chosen to spend the weekend with her husband. It?s not that we don?t believe in the Holy Spirit, she said. We do. It?s just that we never went in for that sort of thing.

I pointed out that even the Catholics were doing it now. Are they? she brightened. Well then, it must be all right, mustn?t it?

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