There has been a really encouraging growth of Alpha Courses in Ireland to 120 Courses per year.  Accordingly Alpha Ireland has decided to launch an Alpha Media Campaign initially focusing on Dublin. This campaign will then be rolled out across the country over the next two to five years. The Dublin Campaign will link in with the Year of Evangelisation in Dublin focusing on the Gospel of Luke, successfully launched by the two main churches earlier this year.

The object of this Campaign is to use Alpha to share the good news of the gospel with those outside of the church, especially young adults. The Campaign will mobilise churches / parishes in three areas in Dublin to reach out to their Community using the Alpha Course.

The Areas are:

-          Dublin South East– incl. Bray / Dun Laoghaire / Foxrock / Blackrock / Deans Grange / Shankill.

-          Dublin North East– incl. Malahide / Swords / Clontarf / Howth / Darndale

-          Central Dublin – incl. Ringsend / Dollymount / Gardiner St. / Glasnevin / East Wall

      Contact Details for the Dublin 2011 Campaign

 ALPHA IRELAND

72 Hillcourt Rd, Glenageary, Co. Dublin

Tel: 2369821/ Fax: 2369800

alphairel@eircom.net / www.alphacourse.ie

 

Alpha Dublin North East 2011:

            Evelyn Hamilton               087 244 3901

            David Hamilton                 087 246 0664

             

Alpha Dublin Central 2011:

           Kate O Ceallaigh                086 153 9509

               

Alpha Dublin South East 2011:

          Basil Good                           087 241 5605

          Susan O’Toole                    087 683 7520

          Paddy Monaghan               087 238 2941

20 churches / parishes are to be recruited in each Area to participate in this groundbreaking campaign. Each church will commit to running an Alpha Course for their local community and contribute €250 initially with a commitment to raise a further €750 by October. The money raised locally will be spent locally on advertising such as: cinema ads, local papers, local radio, billboards, Dart and buses.           

If your church / parish would like to get involved please contact the Alpha Ireland office 01 2369821 / alphairel@eircom.net

Please keep this initiative in your prayers.

To download the Alpha Media Campaign Flyer for the 3 Dublin Areas please click here ]]> http://www.alphacourse.ie/alpha-advertising-campaign-dublin-2011/feed http://www.alphacourse.ie/youth-alpha-in-schools http://www.alphacourse.ie/youth-alpha-in-schools#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:12:22 +0000 admin http://www.alphacourse.ie/?p=675 Youth Alpha has been run successfully in a number of Secondary schools in Dublin.  The good news is that 6 Ministries are partnering together to promote Youth Alpha in Transition Year in Secondary/Community schools around Ireland.  They are Catholic Youth Care, YWAM, Scripture Union, Youth for Christ and the Church of Ireland Dublin Youth ministry and Alpha Ireland.

They have produced a Youth Alpha resource called Youth Alpha in Schools and hosted a conference in the Redemptorist Retreat Centre in Dublin this March for RE teachers.  There was great feedback from the 40 who attended with 10 new Schools indicating they would like to run Youth alpha in Transition year in their schools.  

To download the Youth Alpha in Schools Introductory Booklet please click here

A comprehensive new Youth Alpha Leaders Guide is now available from Alpha Ireland for €32 including postage.

 

Dublin in the only one of the 26 Catholic Dioceses in Ireland that has set up an Office of Evangelisation and this office has produced a special edition of the gospel of Luke with beautiful photographs from Dublin Churches and Museums.  Along with the Church of Ireland it has now distributed 250,000 copies of this Gospel. 

The Archdiocese then developed an interactive DVD based on Luke for children, in cooperation with Scripture Union and the Bible Society.  To further Alpha in Catholic Parishes the Office for Evangelisation asked us if we could link Alpha into Luke’s gospel which they felt would help Catholic parishes come on board. 

We have now produced a booklet covering the 15 Alpha talks with scriptures from Luke. To download a free copy click here

Last year Nicky Gumbel, the pioneer of Alpha, came to speak at an Alpha Lunch attended by 180 people.  Afterwards he had a very good meeting with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin which led on to the Catholic Vicar of Evangelisation, Fr. Ciaran O’Carroll and a colleague attending a large Alpha Leaders conference in London attended by over 1,000 leaders, of which the largest denomination was Catholic.  This in turn led to the Office of Evangelisation hosting 6 Alpha Courses for Parish Council members in Dublin and those involved in ministry last Autumn.

These Alpha courses were held in Shankill, Tallaght, Whitehall, Clonliffe, Blanchardstown and City Quay. We had a total of 238 people on the first night and most completed the course. The feedback was superb. One priest participant said:

“I enjoyed the talks. They were light, refreshing and helped me in my ministry. It reminded me to pray with the Scriptures. The Alpha course can revive faith in Ireland; we need to help people form and build a relationship with Jesus Christ. I plan to now run Alpha in my Parish and school”

Questionnaires, filled out at the end of the 6 Courses, showed some interesting results:

·               79% said they read the Bible more as a result of doing Alpha.

·               53% said they would help in running a future Course

·               63% said they would like to participate in some follow on course to Alpha in the Parish

·               27% said there was help available in their Parish for a Follow on to Alpha.

A follow on Seminar for these participants was held in Clonliffe College, Dublin last January on understanding the Eucharist.  The major challenge for Alpha is Parish based followon.  The Alpha course assumes that Parishes running Alpha have small home groups/Parish Cells but they are not in most Catholic Parishes.   

There has been a growth in Alpha Marriage Courses in the country with courses in Waterford, Cork, Arklow, Dublin North and Drogheda.  Dublin’s 3 Rock Pub in Rathfarnham was the venue for a successful Marriage Course with 10 Coupes attending the 7 week course hosted by 3 couples. One couple, on the point of divorce, did the Marriage Course and recommitted to their marriage during it.

President Mary McAleese launches “National Marriage Week Ireland” - Wed 10th Feb 2010

To see a review of the National Marraige week taken from The Irish Catholic newspaper please click Here.

You can watch the full video below or click here to launch it in Vimeo.

Alpha Course turned my life around, says Dublin Businesswoman

Ten years ago, at the age of 57, my father suddenly died. At the time I was seven months pregnant with my second son. At four months old my baby son was rushed to hospital, very ill. His brain was bleeding rapidly and his head was swelling. Doctors decided they would have to operate - but there was only a 50/50 chance he would survive.

I cried out to God in the little hospital chapel. I made a deal with Him: that if He saved my child I would one day follow him. My son’s brain stopped bleeding. The doctors couldn’t believe it. They said it was a miracle! My Baby Boy was allowed home two days later - totally healed. That was the beginning of my journey with the Lord.

At that time I was living life in the fast lane. I was involved in a big social scene, a roller-coaster life of Highs and Lows. I had two businesses and 15 staff. I had nannies looking after my children and other people collecting them from the school gate. On the outside I was a happy-go-lucky person, but inside I was crumbling. I had so much but felt so empty. I had a strong hunger for spiritual things but this led me down the wrong path - I sought out mediums and spiritualists. Because of this, things in my life were going from bad to worse. My sister has a strong Christian Faith and continued to pray for me.

Then I was invited to do something called the Alpha Course. I didn’t know too much about it, but understood it was a kind of introduction to the Christian Faith. It is a brilliant course. The teaching input was so clear and engaging, it always left me hungry for more - and the people were so genuinely caring. Through it all I started to pray and experience a whole new sense of closeness with God.

God has restored broken relationships in my life. He has restored years of my life that had been lost, just like he promised in the Bible: “I will restore to you the years locusts have eaten”(Joel 2:25). He is restoring me to the person He created me to be, not the person the world wants me to be. He continues to perform many miracles in my life. He gives me opportunities to pray with people regularly, including my 8 staff, and he gives me the boldness to step out in faith.

The Lord never ceases to amaze me. He speaks to me through NATURE, through PEOPLE, through SUFFERING and through JOY. His message is simple, it’s us that make it complicated. He is not distant - He is near us in our hearts and on our lips. And I praise Him because we are Fearfully and Wonderfully made.

I have been involved in a number of Alpha courses since and have been so thrilled to see others begin to have a personal relationship with the Lord.

Bear Grylls is best known for his television series Born Survivor, currently no. 1 on Discovery Channel in US. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest, doing so at age 23, having broken his back at age 21. Bear married Shara in 2000 and together they did an Alpha course, which had a profound effect on their lives.

Bear says: “It’s about having a relationship with the person who made you and made all the mountains that I love. Faith isn’t about being weird but being loved. I feel 100% comfortable recommending Alpha as I know no one is ever judged or bible bashed. The Alpha course is super laid back and it’s fun. You don’t have to do it to impress anyone; you can be yourself and just be very honest. If you’re nervous take a friend.”

To download Bear Grylls complete interview with Nicky Gumble - click here.

The new Bear Grylls 3 minute Alpha advert filmed for the Autumn 2009 campaign