In Depth:  Andrew Bryant

I'll confess straight away. Our experiment with home schooling lasted barely two terms. When we started, friends said we were crazy. As our two school-aged children returned to school at Easter, we tended to agree!

How had we been so confident/misguided/smug (to cite just three of the epithets we had either applied to ourselves or were convinced others had used of us)? What had we done to our children, and to ourselves? With tensions running high at home and both of us signed off by the doctor, it seemed clear enough; it had been a mistake.

Here's my problem. For some months, we have been anticipating launching an Alpha course in our church. Yes, we know that 'Alpha' has been developed by the rather avant garde Holy Trinity Brompton church. It's the place where the 'Toronto Blessing' hit town in 1994 and where people have been known to fall down, stay down and occasionally utter noises. We are also aware of radical negative polemic from some quarters. A talk entitled 'Alpha: A Different Gospel' was one that caught my eye but not my sympathy a few weeks ago.

Although we are not a Third Wave or charismatic church fellowship, we have not been especially known for hostility to this emphasis. I suppose I see myself as one of the 'cautiously open' people.