The first official Canadian Alpha Conference was held at St.Paul's, Toronto in August 1996. It was the largest conference on evangelism ever organized by an Anglican parish in Canada.
The Rev. David Reed, a retired professor of pastoral theology at Wycliffe College, a "Canadian Anglican scholar who specializes in Pentecostalism and the charistmatic movement says he was surprised to learn this winter that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby prays every morning in tongues" (p. 1). "Reed said he was struck by how deeply the archbishop seems to have integrated prayer in tongues -- also known as the use of prayer language -- into his daily spiritual discipline" (p. 2). For Reed, "fitting the phenomenon into a linguistic category has not been important. The essential thing, he says, is that it's a form of communication with God that reaches beyond the thinking and formulating part of the self" (p. 2). "Another scholar, Simon Chan, writes about prayer language as a means of achieving a special kind of closeness with God -- like the ungrammatical vocalizations human beings sometime pass into in moments of exceptional intimacy with each other ... 'One is a mother speaking to a baby -- all that kind of language means absolutely nothing to anybody else, and yet to the mother and the baby it's profound communication" (p. 2).
"The thesis of this book unashamedly proposes that (a) the tools Jesus gave to the apostolic Church are the same for today, (b) speaking in tongues is a key that opens the 'tool-box' of the supernatural possibilities of God, both for the individual and the community of the Church, (c) where the tools of the Spirit are in evidence in the local congregation, the structures are being renewed in order to facilitate the ministry of Christ's commission, (d) the dimensions of Christ's commission give the Church a heritage that is catholic, charismatic, and evangelical in nature". -- pp. 11-12.
Contents: Acknowledgements -- Back to Basics -- A Brief Historical Sketch -- Tongues is a Gift -- A Gift for Ministry -- A Gift for Prayer -- Some Perceptions Concerning Glossolalia -- The Personality of Tongue Speaking -- Non-Rational Experience -- Biblical Perspectives on Glossolalia -- Baptism with the Spirit -- Being Charismatic -- Being Catholic -- Being Evangelical -- Conclusion.
Author is a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada "ordained in 1958 and is now rector of St. James's Anglican Church in Calgary and canon missioner for the Diocese of Calgary. As national coordinator of Anglican Renewal Ministries he has led conferences for Christian renewal across Canada and beyond".
"There has been a tremendous upsurge of interest in the Charismatic Movements, and manifestations of it appear throughout the Episcopal Church. One of its least understood evidences is 'speaking in tongues'. This booklet attempts to clear up some of the terminology". -- p. 2.
Contents: Charismatic, and its less popular equivalent, neo-pentecostal -- Baptism in the Spirit -- Spirit-filled (more accurately, "Spirit-baptized") -- Glossolalia : Speaking in Tongues: Praying (singing) in the Spirit -- The Anointing of the Spirit -- Gifts of the Spirit: Fruit of the Spirit -- Fruit of the Spirit -- Prophecy -- The Word: "stay in the Word", "get deep in the Word" -- Submission and cover.