Speaker Meeting with partners, 6.45 for 7pm

In the picture: Geoff and Hope Price with Club President Ann.

Geoff is a retired Anglican priest but before deciding to take up the cloth he obtained a National Diploma in Agriculture and when he was 19 years old he went to Africa for a year to work with farmers in Zambia.  On returning to Britain he married Hope.  She is a qualified nurse, currently a community nurse working with the Friends of Fairford and Lechlade Communities

They were guest speakers at one of our meetings in September 2023 when they entertained members by relating many of the interesting and fascinating highlights of their life together.

Speaker Meeting, Monday Sep 4th 2023

At this meeting, their talk was entitled "Freedom - taking Alpha to Lithuania"

Geoff said he is half-Lithuanian.  In 1897 his Great Grandparents and their 3 children left Lithuania to settle in Britain.  Twenty years later, 2 of the children went back but the other one, Geoff’s Grandmother, stayed in England.  Today, Geoff has 82 relatives in Lithuania.  

Lithuania is one of the Baltic states with Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Russia on its borders.  Its capital and largest city is Vilnius.  Towards the end of World War I, Lithuania declared independence and the Republic of Lithuania was founded.  In World War II, Lithuania was occupied, first by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany, before being occupied again by the Soviets in 1944.  There was armed resistance to this Soviet occupation which lasted until the early 1950’s.  In 1990, a year before the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to break away when it proclaimed the restoration of its independence.

Today, Lithuania is a developed country with an advanced economy.  It’s a member of the European Union and NATO.  Its people are fearful that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will succeed and that Russia will eye the Baltic states next.  Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion although a small number of churches are Russian Orthodox.  Russian Orthodox priests have been ordered to pray for a Russian victory over Ukraine but, at great risk to themselves and their families, those in Lithuania are resisting doing any such thing.

In 2003 Geoff took Alpha to Lithuania.   Alpha is an evangelistic programme designed to introduce the basics of the Christian faith through a series of talks and discussions.  It all began at a church in Brompton, Holy Trinity, in 1977 and quickly gained popularity, attracting churches across denominations and all over the world.  The Alpha course focuses on the core principles of the Christian faith which all denominations agree upon.  The talks are designed to explore questions about life, faith and God.  Alpha emphasizes unity, believing that what unites Christians is greater than what divides them.  

The courses are held in churches, homes, workplaces, prisons and universities and typically run for 11 weeks.  

In 2023 Geoff and Hope returned to Lithuania to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Alpha in Lithuania with their friends and relatives who live there, receiving warm and generous hospitality wherever they went.