Editorial Home Page News Prayer Chain Channels Guestbook TalkLine Editorial By Calvin Brown Spring 1998 Channels, Vol. Rev. Calvin Brown is the Executive Director of the Renewal Fellowship within the Presbyteiran Church in Canada. Jesus is described as Alpha and Omega in the New Testament.
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
In some ways it reminds me of the Cursillo movement developed by Spanish Christians where people begin with a weekend course on basic Christianity and experience warm Christian fellowship as well. Cursillo, in which I serve as one of many spiritual Directors, has been adopted as an official program in our denomination but operates essentially independently within denominational structures, much like the Renewal Fellowship. It has the added advantage of being readily available and widely used ecumenically. As you will see from the articles in this issue some communities offer it on an ecumenical basis. I think Alpha is indicative of a real spiritual hunger among the laity for answers to their deep questions.