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Dictionary

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Bishop

‘Bishop’ comes from the Greek word for ‘overseer’. So a bishop is a senior Christian minister authorised to have oversight for God’s people. As well as duties given to deacons and priests, bishops confirm and ordain.

Confirmation

Confirmation is about ‘confirming’ the faith in God we declared at baptism. It also involves being strengthened by God’s Holy Spirit. In the Church in Wales it is administered by the bishop.

Home Pobl Dewi: June 2025 All-age Alpha

All-age Alpha

Bro Aman LMA has recently completed an Alpha course, held in All Saints’ Church, Ammanford. Ali Reeves is encouraged

A small but engaged group of participants attended, ranging in age from 16 to 60-something. The group came with a wide variety of experiences of church; some were regular longstanding churchgoers, but we also had some who had only recently been baptised and one who had drifted away from church many years ago.

Bro Aman Alpha

Some of the group had met in church before but didn’t know each other well, whilst others were strangers. Some icebreaker games in the first couple of sessions soon helped people to relax and it was lovely to hear some very personal stories shared during the course, once people felt comfortable with each other.

A lack of catering facilities meant that food had to be prepared in the vicarage and brought down each week but the jacket potatoes were probably a favourite and homemade cake always goes down well.

The facilitators were delighted to see how the group came together during the course, developing the confidence to pray out loud together and, as the course progressed, becoming more confident in articulating how their faith was developing. Some of the comments we received included:

  • “Free food is always good!”
  • “I feel the course has brought me closer to God”
  • “I’ve been a churchgoer for many years but this has definitely deepened my faith and understanding”
  • “I have two families now, my home family, and my church family”
  • “I pray every day now and Jesus is definitely a part of my life”.

We are delighted that three of the course participants have asked to be confirmed at our upcoming LMA confirmation service in July with Bishop Dorrien.

Although we had a small group for our first course, we would definitely recommend Alpha as a tool for bringing people into a relationship with Jesus and we are hoping to run the course every year from now on.