Alpha 1
- From: "Daveytoo" <davey2623@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 18:20:20 +0000 (UTC)
Turnout was very good, I didn't do a head count but the guestimate was 50+
people with a wide range of ages, social strata etc.
We were pre-allocated into groups of around 10 and the evening started with
a light meal. A good idea as a fair number would be coming straight from
work. It was a continuation from the innaugral dinner the previous week and
people had a chance to settle into their groups and make introductions.
It seems I have been honoured with being part of the group led by S who is
vicar in chief and his wife A with whom I had some conversation previously.
After dinner there was an introduction and welcome for everyone from S
followed by a multi-media presentation along the lines of 'questions of
life', who was Jesus, what is the church.
Then we're off with our groups to different parts of the church for round
circle discussions
The cast of characters in my group were just about as diverse as you can
get. A nice young couple who knew S and A; a no nonsence lady from the
highlands of Scotland; a broken, lonely alcoholic guy who, by his own
admission had to keep reminding himself he wasn't at AA, a middle aged lady
who kept giggling but said she was really pleased to be getting into the
Alpha thing, another lady with sad, watery eyes; a young guy who had been
brought up in a Christian family but had doubts; S and A presiding but keen
to let the 'floor' be open for everyone to speak rather than dominating the
precedings. Oh, and me of course!
These are all my first impressions (I hope they will forgive me!) I could be
proved wrong of course, maybe as things progress there will be some
character suprises.
After some ice breaking exercises it was down to the nitty gritty. Why the
heck were we all there? What did we expect to gain from Alpha? That sort of
thing.
I was a bit nervous about speaking personal stuff to all these strangers.
I've never done anything like it before.
When it came to my turn I glanced at S who I have had some brief
conversations with and immediately picked up that he would rather I didn't
give it the 'full throttle' right there and then. So I kept it brief,
answering to the question "what brought you to Alpha?".....
"spiritual and intellectual desperation led me to knocking at the door - and
it opened" ... there was quite a response in the room. Oh dear, I do hate
being at the center of all those eyes! Can't do much except grin sheepishly.
Everybody chipped in with their reasons. There seemed to be a theme with
most: "I'm a Christian but........"
Then a whole heap of history and histrionics from the alcoholic guy. I liked
him! (selfishly I thought: 'at least all those eyes aren't on me') I tried
to put in some chirpy words of encouragement to him (I won't go into his
personal details here, of course) then he asked me towards the end what the
heck I was on about. To be honest I'm not too sure I know exactly what I was
bumbling on about myself, but it appeared to cheer him up a bit. Come the
end we exchanged quite warm au revoirs.
Apart from some small chat that was about it for the first evening. I felt
quite exhilarated on reflection, as I bashed off into the rainy London
night.
Looking forward to next weeks 'class'.
peace to all
davey
ps if the general consensus is that this sort of posting is a bit long
winded or innapropriate for ukrc I'll consider just putting it up on my blog
thing
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Alpha 1
- From: John Blake
- Re: Alpha 1
- From: Richard Emblem
- Re: Alpha 1
- From: Michael J Davis
- Re: Alpha 1
- Prev by Date: Re: Work and idleness
- Next by Date: Re: Hell
- Previous by thread: Re: The impending energy crisis and the end of civilization
- Next by thread: Re: Alpha 1
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
