Alpha Barbie!

How can the local church engage with those who never think about stepping through their doors? It’s a big question! Jonathon Wright has one novel solution.

At the start of 2025, the Fishguard Group of Churches Pastoral area within the Greater Dewisland LMA were wrestling with this question. Looking around our area, we thought about where people might voluntarily go for an event, and from which we could invite them to explore faith.

In Fishguard, we are fortunate to have Theatr Gwaun, an independent community theatre and cinema. It is well loved and used by the community. Could we do something there?

The proposal was simple: to invite people to a free showing of Barbie the Movie. It would be fair to say that not many church council members had seen it! But the key demographic we wanted to engage was 18-50, and the church council graciously agreed to support the idea.

We were delighted that Archdeacon Mones Farah agreed to facilitate a discussion after the film to help people ponder some big questions the film raises, and invite them to explore answers that Christianity might raise.

To put the project together, we thought about a number of areas, including the costs for venue booking, a licence to show the film, free ice cream for all who came, advertising the event and follow-up materials. That came to a budget of £900. Thanks to a generous grant of £800 from the diocese, we got things moving.

We wanted to reach out to as many people as possible and invited other churches and chapels to make invitations. The rule was that if someone who regularly worships comes along, they had to bring someone with them who does not.

120 people booked in to see the film from Fishguard and the surrounding area. 104 people actually came along to watch the film. At the end, we dished out ice cream and Archdeacon Mones led a 30-minute discussion about the big themes in the film. Everyone who came along received an invitation to either the Alpha Course - for those who don’t yet think of themselves as Christians - or Discipleship Explored - for those who do.

Course attendance was certainly higher as a result of the film. Another result was that we had a real conversation starter in the local area and received favourable coverage in the Western Telegraph which has helped local people be more aware of what is going on.