Editing Alpha course (section)

== History ==

Alpha originated in 1977 with the work of Charles Marnham, a [[curate]] at [[Holy Trinity Brompton]] (HTB), a parish of the [[Church of England]] in [[London]].<ref name="Pent. Dict.">{{Cite book |last=Hocken |first=P. D. |title=The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and charismatic movements |publisher=Zondervan Pub. House |year=2002 |isbn=0310224810 |editor-last=Burgess |editor-first=Stanley M. |edition=rev. and expanded |location=Grand Rapids, Mich. |page=312 |chapter=Alpha Course}}</ref> It started as a course for church members regarding the basics of beliefs commonly held by many believers in Christ, but then began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith. [[John Irvine (priest)|John Irvine]], Marnham's successor curate at HTB, took over the running of the course in 1981 and developed the 10-week format that continues to this day. In 1985 [[Nicky Lee (priest) |Nicky Lee]] took on the course, and in 1990 [[Nicky Gumbel]], then also curate at Holy Trinity, took over the running of the course<ref name="uk.alpha.org">{{Cite web |title=How Alpha Began &#124; Alpha UK |url=http://uk.alpha.org/how-alpha-began |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206103759/http://uk.alpha.org/how-alpha-began |archive-date=6 February 2009 |access-date=23 October 2009 |publisher=Uk.alpha.org}}</ref> at the invitation of [[Sandy Millar]] (vicar at that time) and oversaw its revision and expansion.

Alpha grew rapidly in Britain in the 1990s, from just four courses in 1991 to 2,500 in 1995. It reached a peak in 1998, when 10,500 courses were run. By 2001 this figure had fallen to 7,300.<ref name="Hunt">Stephen Hunt, The Alpha Experience: Evangelism in a Post-Christian Era (Ashgate Publishing, 2004) page 13.</ref> In 2018 the Alpha website described the course as running in over 100 countries and in over 100 languages, with more than 24 million people having taken the course.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alpha is running all around the globe... |url=http://alpha.org/global |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322141016/http://alpha.org/global |archive-date=22 March 2015 |access-date=5 March 2018 |publisher=Alpha.org}}</ref>
{{As of | 2022}} the Alpha website states that the course "has been translated into 112 different languages".<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Alpha |url=https://alpha.org/about/ |access-date=24 February 2022 |publisher=Alpha International |quote=Now, all over the world, millions of people have tried Alpha and it has been translated into 112 different languages.}}</ref>

Courses have been run by [[Anglican]], [[Presbyterian]], [[Lutheran]], [[Baptist]], [[Methodist]], [[Pentecostal]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church| Eastern Orthodox]]<ref name="uk.alpha.org" /> and [[Catholic Church| Roman Catholic]] churches,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alpha in a Catholic Context |url=https://catholics.alpha.org/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123033815/https://catholics.alpha.org/ |archive-date=23 November 2016 |access-date=2 January 2017 |publisher=catholics.alpha.org}}</ref> with some variations in course material.