Alpha, Bisto and Omega

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Rt Revd Andrew Burnham, is a ‘flying bishop’, created to look after parishes which do not accept women clergy. He looks after several such parishes in the Oxford Diocese. Below, he writes about his ‘conversion’ to Alpha.

THERE has been some surprise that, just before the summer, I launched an Alpha initiative. ‘Isn’t that stuff a bit too evangelical?’ ‘a bit cheesy?’ I was asked. ‘Isn’t it a bit weak on the sacraments?’ (Mind you, what could be more sacramental than meeting together to learn about Jesus over supper?)

I myself was surprised when I first discovered that it is in Catholic countries that Alpha is spreading fastest and doing some of its most valuable work. I was no less surprised by the enthusiasm of the Roman Catholic authorities, from the Pope down. Alpha, as the name suggests, is just a beginning. It is pre-evangelism or, at any rate, pre-catechesis. You become intrigued and infatuated with someone before you genuinely fall in love and get to know someone. Sometimes infatuations blaze for a while and burn out.  Sometimes they lead to a real encounter and a real relationship. So it is with our relationship with Jesus.

Most of the criticisms of Alpha I have heard have been from experienced Christians, some of whom found the course too simple. Would these same people pick up a baby’s plastic book, designed to stay afloat in the bath, and complain about the simple story line, the big writing? The baby’s book is a start in the relationship with reading and with literature. The Alpha course is a start in the life with the Word of God. Others have said, ‘Why not Course X or Course Y instead?’ To which I reply, if I were wanting to sell gravy granules, I’d go for Bisto. There are adverts for it already on the trains and buses. So it is with Alpha. People have heard of it. It has, as they say, market penetration. There might be better granules than Bisto – who knows? – but that’s the brand people are likely to buy. If I want to get somewhere selling gravy granules, I’d go for Bisto.

But why launch this Alpha initiative now? In a word, I am sick of the Church’s domestic debates: gay sex and civil partnerships, women and the episcopate. Very few people are directly affected by homosexuality.  Very few women aspire to high office in the church. It seems to me that to focus entirely on these highly contentious issues is at worst a kind of idolatry, at best to ignore the big picture. Idolatry is to focus on things other than loving God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength (cf Matthew 22:37). It was of this commandment that Jesus reminded the Pharisees and Lawyers at the height of the controversy with them. The big picture is the Lord’s harvest: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’ (Luke 10:2). Let’s look outwards and not inwards!

So you might find your parish running an Alpha course or two. I am inviting a couple of dozen young mostly lay leaders together for a conference on the first weekend of Lent (3rd-5th March 2006). Some of these will be new to Alpha, others will be experienced. This Parish Evangelism weekend will be the start – and for some the continuation – of something new.

Let me know, through your parish priest, if you would like to be invited.  After Alpha comes a whole alphabet of Christian life and teaching:  Baptism and Confirmation Classes, Discipling, Emmaus, Eucharist, Formation, Marriage, Ordination, Reconciliation, and so on to Unction and Viaticum, food for the final journey.

May Christ, who is Alpha and Omega, our beginning and our end, bless us as we seek to faithfully serve him as labourers in the harvest.

Click on the link to find out more about the Alpha Course ; or to find where your nearest course is running.