Last weekend a Church of England vicar received a standing ovation from a thousand-strong Catholic crowd at what was billed as the evangelisation event of a generation. Twenty Catholic bishops were among those who attended Proclaim ’15, a national initiative launched by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales in Birmingham, to hear an address by the Revd Nicky Gumbel, pioneer of the Alpha Course, (see section at foot of this page).Around the world, a growing number of Catholic parishes now use the course, a 10-week introduction to Christianity. The Church here sees in Alpha a way of realising the evangelising zeal demanded by Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. According to Fr Christopher Jamison, director of the National Office for Vocation, who