ALMOST 300 churches in the North-East are joining forces in a campaign to encourage people back to religion.

Churches are to run Alpha courses this autumn, inviting people to supper parties in churches, homes, halls, pubs and restaurants, to introduce them to courses exploring the meaning of life.

More than 1.3 million people have already taken part in the Alpha courses throughout the UK, in 7,300 churches of all denominations.

The campaign forms part of the churches' plan to reverse the decline in attendance over the past 20 years.

Only 7.5 per cent of the population attend church, but many courses running Alpha report that their con- gregations are growing as a result.

The course is a contemporary introduction to the Christian faith and provides a relaxed and informal opportunity for participants to make up their own mind about Christianity.

It is constructed around one meeting a week for ten weeks and has become increasingly successful in the UK over the past eight years.

The course is supported by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and by leaders of all the main denominations. It is now running in more than 23,800 churches in 132 countries worldwide.

It also operates in 134 of the 160 prisons in the UK, and in more than 60 per cent of universities.