Church announces £6million post-Alpha college
-29/03/05
Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB) has said it is to set up a new ‘post-Alpha’ theological college at the cost of £6 million.
Dr Graham Tomlin of the conservative theological college Wycliffe Hall is to head up the initiative from September, while HTBís former rector, Sandy Millar, will be a ‘professor of Church planting’.
While the theological college will not initially train candidates for ministry in the Church of England, the Bishop of London has indicated that this might be a possibility in the future, reports the Church of England Newspaper.
The theology centre will be based at St Paulís, Onslow Square, which is being refurbished to the tune of about £6 million.
HTB is well-known for producing the Alpha course, an evangelistic course which provides a space for people to explore certain aspects of Christianity. It has however been criticised by radical Christians for its emphasis upon belief rather than discipleship or Christian action.
ìThe aim for this theological centre would be to offer a range of different courses from post-Alpha onwards” said Dr Tomlin.
He said that alongside a ëSchool of Theologyí he envisaged further ëSchoolsí for Urban Mission, Worship, and Prayer.
The plan for a Christian ëuniversityí has been talked about at HTB for a number of years. In the late 1990s the church looked actively into buying a property to develop a campus, including Battersea Power Station.
The choice of St Paulís, Onslow Square, in Kensington follows the recent dispersal of the congregation to plant other churches in the capital. The parish of HTB is also known for its church plants.
In an interview with The Times, Bishop Richard Chartres said there was clearly potential ìfor the training of tomorrowís ministers.î
It has been suggested that the Centre will be a training centre focussing on ëmission-shaped churchí initiatives in the Church of England.
However, Ian Mobsby, an Ekklesia associate and Anglican deacon who is working with the emerging church project ‘Moot’ in Westminster said; “Whilst there is a need for theological training, that need is already being met. There is perhaps a far more pressing need for financial resources to directly support those fresh expressions of church which have been flagged up by the mission-shaped church report.”