The photo above shows some of the group attending the Alpha course during one of their meetings at the Castle.
The Alpha course which has been running since October 2000 came to an end on Monday 8th January 2001. The course which has been internationally acclaimed as a way of interesting people in Christianity, was organised and ran by Maybole Council of Churches. The first event was an Alpha Supper which took place in the Old Parish Church in October and was a non-commitment first look at the Alpha course. About fifty people turned up to find out more. Of these twenty two began the course and most finished it. All of the attendees at this first course were church goers and each person found that there was something new to take away each week.
The course involved eleven three hour sessions on various Christian topics starting with "Who is Jesus?", continuing with topics such as " Creation" "How to read Scripture?", "Prayer", "Suffering", "The Holy Spirit" "The Church" "Does God Heal Today" and "What do I do with the rest of my life?" Meetings took place every Monday evening from 7pm, when everyone sat down to supper together, until 9.45pm. There was a short prayer and praise section, a video presentation of the theme, followed by a cuppa, and then into discussion groups.
Attendance was good throughout and at the last meeting everyone agreed they wanted to come back and help with the next course. The group will continue to meet on the last Monday of the month, to get ready for the next Alpha. As Sir David Frost will be presenting a 10 week live Alpha on TV starting in May, everyone agreed to commit to watch the programmes which will be an excellent means of training for everyone.
For our first time around the course went well, and many good lessons have been learned about preparation and planning, particularly for the catering!! But everyone agreed the sessions had been instructive and enjoyable.
An evaluation will be prepared at a meeting of the Executive Group for the Council of Churches meeting on 7th February. The Charity Shop has been booked for September to help defray costs.