Update 01 July 2013
I wrote this blog at the end of 2009, in an effort to order my thoughts in attending the Alpha Course. I hope it will prove an interesting insight to anyone thinking of doing so themselves. Whilst the picture overall catches me in a state of some existential flux, it's fair to say it was a worthwhile endeavour, but not for the reasons that the course organisers might originally have intended. What follows is my original preface to this blog, penned in October 2009. I have included sequential links below it, to allow a more intuitive reading experience.I hope you enjoy reading it.
James
Hello there.
I started this blog primarily to record my musings on the Alpha Course, run by Kerith Community Church that I attended on Wednesday. It was the first session in a series of ten, and was held at Costa Coffee in Bracknell.
From looking around the web, there were precious few accounts that I could locate which recorded the kind of thing that happens in a reasonably neutral tone. There seemed to be a fair few rabid and militant atheists, and equally rabid and insistent Christians, neither of which really sheds light on the events and intentions and techniques of this course. As such, over the next few weeks, I will endeavour to record my own thoughts and feelings as honestly as possible.
There are, of course, some problems extant with this approach - I'm not a Christian, I'm not an investigative journalist, and I'm not trained in theology. Nor am I entirely an atheist - my stance is difficult to sum up in a neatly labelled package. However, to re-iterate, I will record my thoughts and feelings as faithfully as possible, in the hope that these will inform and assist anyone out there who is considering attending a course, for whatever reason to come to a conclusion either way.
