Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

West Kirby, near to my home, the Sisters of Jesus’ Way, modelled on the Evangelical
Sisters of Mary of Darmstadt in Germany.
k) Shared Evangelism
The Alpha Course from Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican Church in London, has
crossed has crossed denominational barriers in a remarkable way, though it did not set out to
be an ecumenical venture.
Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, who has served as the Preacher to the Papal Household since
1980, has visited and spoken at Holy Trinity, and highly commends the course to Roman
Catholics – an Alpha Course for Catholics was set up in 2003. He has urged Alpha to
continue as a ministry to the whole Church of Christ.
The course began in 1992 as an introduction to the Christian faith, and is now used by all the
major denominations, worldwide.
Every two years about 1,000 church leaders from 76 countries attend Alpha‟s international
week in London. In May 2007 this conference was attended by the Catholic Archbishop of
Moscow, three Catholic bishops from Peru, and three Anglican bishops from India, and more
than 30 denominations were represented. A delegation from Zambia reported that every
prisoner in their country was able to listen to Alpha talks by radio and a report from Russia
announced that „on the stage today we have Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox, all together
running Alpha.‟ 183
Alpha is Evangelical and Charismatic in style and doctrine and some Evangelicals on the
Reformed wing reject it as being too Charismatic and/or as compromising Evangelical truth.
The fact that Alpha stresses the need for a personal conversion experience and an encounter
with the Holy Spirit shows how much traditional Charismatic Evangelicalism has reached
into areas not considered traditionally Evangelical. The success of Alpha (in some 7,000 UK
centres, embracing 25% of all UK churches, and through 31,000 courses worldwide)
demonstrates how denominational antagonisms are less and less apparent in today‟s
Church. 184
l) Shared Community Action
Inter-church cooperation in serving the community has been successfully undertaken in
several cities over the past few years. This has been with an enthusiasm for united witness
which has not been seen before. The aim of these ventures, particularly in inner-city areas,
was to renovate and restore neglected areas physically, socially and spiritually. Examples
have included Soul Survivor, Soul in the City in London, Merseyfest on Merseyside, and
Hope 08 nationally.
183 A feature in Church of England Newspaper, UK Focus, July 2007.
184 Brookes, Andrew, The Alpha Phenomenon, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, 2007, pp 22,
27.
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