Alpha in a Catholic Context

The Catholic Bishop of Byumba, Rt Revd. Servilien Nzakamwita, attended Alpha International Week in June 2011. He was impressed by the organisation of the conference and by the level of faith and the spirit of prayer he found there. In his own words, ‘the Holy Spirit was indeed active and present’.

Wanting to know more about the Alpha course and about how to run it in his own diocese, he invited the National Director in Rwanda, Francis Kabango, and the Alpha for Catholics department at HTB to send a team to Rwanda in order to carry out an Alpha training event. He also invited this team to address the Rwanda Conference of Bishops on 8-10 December.

A team made up of two members of Alpha France (Nicolas de Chezelles and Charly Mootien) and three members of Alpha International (Charlotte Jeffries, Tom Miles and Jaime Nistal) was sent to Rwanda at the beginning of December in order to run a 3-day residential GAT in a Catholic context.

The GAT took place in Kabgayi and was hosted by Bishop Nzakamwita, who attended the whole training and participated actively in all the activities. The venue of the GAT was the retreat house of the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit, a paradise of peace and a perfect location for a residential GAT.

The 43 delegates included seven priests, a religious sister and many lay leaders. They were carefully selected as representatives of the nine Catholic dioceses of Rwanda. Many of them were members of the Justice and Peace commission in their dioceses or were actively involved in the pastoral for the laity.

One of the highlights of the training was the prayer time that followed the talk ‘How Can I Be Filled with the Holy Spirit?’ The atmosphere of deep peace and joy was a clear sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, who inspired the delegates to join their voices spontaneously in beautiful songs of praise and adoration.