Forum Message

Topic: Re:Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church
Posted by: Peter Evans
Date/Time: 16/01/16 20:45:00

In answer to earlier questions, the Alpha movement is a comparatively recent evangelical Anglican movement based at Holy Trinity Brompton.  Whatever views people have about it - and they range from ‘an inspirational experience’ to ‘blatant brainwashing’ - it’s been very successful at building up a following through its ‘Alpha Courses’. It's  also been effective at increasing church attendances by mobilising groups of supporters to ‘plant’ (their expression) themselves in poorly supported churches and to eventually take them over.  Equally they target closed or redundant churches, such as St Albans, and negotiate to reopen them under the Alpha brand.  In this case, Christ Church on Turnham Green, already an Alpha church, applied to the Church Commissioners to have a section of Acton Green transferred into their parish so they could more conveniently run St Albans and fund improvements to it.  They also kick started the congregation with a ‘plant’ group from Turnham Green and developed a range of other activities in the building. 

For those who want to know more about the Alpha movement, there’s plenty on the internet from all points of view.

The proposed parish boundary changes were mentioned on ChiswickW4 at:
http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=stalbansboundarychange.htm

Here's a detailed account of the application to the Church Commissioners:
https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2215837/acton%20green%20pt%201.pdf

There was presumably an appeal but in December 2015 the privy council declined to allow it:
http://privycouncil.info/privy-council-declines-appeal-in-london-parish-boundary-dispute/
..which probably explains why the work can now start on the St Albans building.

I was just making the point that saving St Albans for community use was a laudable objective which many had campaigned for, but I take exception to the new vicar presuming that all those campaigners were equally supportive of a particular branch of a particular religion taking over the building. 


Entire Thread
TopicDate PostedPosted By
Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 18:25:00 Peter Evans
   Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 18:39:00 Loraine Pemberton
      Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 19:06:00 Ann Williams
         Re:Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 19:11:00 Angela Knight
   Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 19:24:00 Arnie Devi
      Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 20:10:00 Julian Pavey
         Re:Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 20:45:00 Peter Evans
            Re:Re:Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 21:04:00 Georgina Flint
               Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 22:00:00 Helene Frost
                  Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 22:41:00 Angela Knight
                     Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Goodbye Acton Green church16/01/16 22:42:00 Angela Knight
                     Alpha Course. Yummy17/01/16 00:33:00 Ken Munn
                        Re:Alpha Course. Yummy17/01/16 13:27:00 Jeni Evans
                           Re:Re:Alpha Course. Yummy17/01/16 19:10:00 Claire Moran
                              Re:Re:Re:Alpha Course. Yummy17/01/16 19:16:00 Will Watson
                                 Re:Re:Re:Re:Alpha Course. Yummy17/01/16 19:32:00 Julian Pavey
                                    Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Alpha Course. Yummy17/01/16 19:51:00 Julian Pavey
                                       Changes at Acton Green Church18/01/16 10:56:00 Peter Evans
                                          Re:Changes at Acton Green Church18/01/16 11:22:00 Anne England
                                             Re:Re:Changes at Acton Green Church18/01/16 11:54:00 Stuart Kerr
                                          Re:Changes at Acton Green Church18/01/16 14:25:00 Robert Fish

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