Be CAUTIOUS of ALPHA!

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I’ve seen heresy defined as a truth taken too far. So I suppose any of our Christian truths & practices can be misused or overapplied in some way. I’d be cautious of throwing out basically good things, just because some may abuse them (intentionally or not). I’ve never been part of Alpha in a Catholic context, but it could be a wonderful evangelization tool, and evangelism isn’t necessarily one of the Catholic Church’s great strengths. And I have seen much good come of the charismatic movement inside the Catholic Church. I’ve seen God work through it to very greatly deepen peoples connections with God in a very personal and real way.
 
I’ve never heard of Alpha. Is it a charismatic program? If it’s not for you, or for others who don’ t like charismatics, then just don’t participate in it and problem is solved. Charismatic groups aren’t for everybody, but there’s no need to keep getting all worried or hyper every time a charismatic program comes up. It works for some people, leave them to it.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I’ve never heard of Alpha. Is it a charismatic program?
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Not necessarily. It was intended as a vanilla flavored introduction to Christianity. Aimed at those who have little to no understanding of the “Christian” faith. The problem is that it was intended to be used by nearly any denomination, so naturally you aren’t go to find anything pertaining to Catholicism.

So to prevent any misunderstandings you need to make sure that you have someone, well educated in our Catholic faith, to follow along at all times so they can call out things that contradict Catholic truth.
InThePew said:
I have a great deal of respect for Alpha if it’s done in the right way which, sadly, it often isn’t.
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This, unfortunately, is why we shouldn’t even be using it. If the program has the potential to contradict Catholic truths and teachings and needs to be implemented in a way that someone can prevent such confusion and misguided views of basic Christianity, then that’s probably a good indication that it isn’t worth using.
 
Thanks, I understand better now. I can see where such a program could be slanted any which way by whatever group was using it.

I Googled and it seems like this is something that started in UK. I don’t think it is really that well known among Catholics in USA. I’ve never heard of it at any Catholic parish here.
 
I had alpha done very well in my own home parish. It was done with a team of catholic and church of Ireland lay people. The videos were a bit of a hit or miss that is for certain. However the group discussion was done fairly well with people answering questions when it came to the topic. Like I talked very much about the different saints, Our Lady (which a lot people in our group talked about), the importance of Mass and the Eucharist.
One of the rules of the group discussion is just listening to whatever the other people are saying in a very respectful manner and not to debate them. Which I found it great to see where other people are at in their faith journey. Interestingly we had church of Ireland lay person in our group and at the end of the discussion hell we ended with the Archangel Micheal prayer and he prayed it with us as well. I am not the most charismatic person because of my preference for more contemplative prayer, but I do acknowledge the charismatic renewal is good and had been approved by both St Paul VI and St John Paul II.
After Alpha finished they started up a “growth group” where our Parish Priests reads from the bible and gives a homily, Then they have a group discussion on what echoed with them.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Thanks, I understand better now. I can see where such a program could be slanted any which way by whatever group was using it.

I Googled and it seems like this is something that started in UK. I don’t think it is really that well known among Catholics in USA. I’ve never heard of it at any Catholic parish here.
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In Hong Kong the Catholic Church is involved.
From the ALPHA homepage:

“Developed as a short course at HTB in London, in 1990 Nicky Gumbel took over running Alpha and found that many people outside of the church wanted to explore the Christian faith. Alpha now runs in every part of the global church, including the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and all mainline Protestant denominations.”
 
Catholic Alpha is only a framework, what is presented is as good or as bad as the orthodoxy of those standing up to facilitate the sessions.

Sounds as if your experience is run by Charismatics from the Catholic Renewal movement. This is a whole separate discussion, do not blame Alpha 🙂

I am aware of parishes where Alpha is run by those who do not have a desire to impart their own favorite spirituality onto the participants. There are other retreat/course models like Cursillo or Search that are very much Charismatic in their DNA, Alpha is not one of them.
 
Paddy1989 said:
i felt Church teaching was on God’s forgiveness which proclaimed that one only need asked for it nullifying the need for the sacrament of confession
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The difference is how one defines “ask for it”. Yes, we MUST ask for forgiveness of sins, we must repent. I would hope we all do this at least once each day. Making an act of Contrition is part of our daily prayer.

For serious sins, the Catholic completes this repentance by seeking out Sacramental Confession.

These are not two different things, but, one thing expanded.

Remember, Alpha is designed for people who have never been taught anything, those who do not know the basics of Christianity.

Think of it as teaching American History to a person who just landed here from another galaxy. In the first sessions you paint with broad strokes “The United States of America declared herself an independent nation on July 4, 1776. The first President of the United States was George Washington.”

These two statements are true. What is also true is the extensive development of the infant USA from colonies to a nation, what is also true is that George Washington was not elected until more than a decade AFTER the Declaration of Independence.

The early learner facts are not changed by the more detailed facts.
Paddy1989 said:
another week where it asked does God still heal today.
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God does still heal. Reports of healings are to be submitted to the local ordinary, etc.
Paddy1989 said:
Here the host talked about how effective charismatic healing groups were and encouraged others to go along to these.
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That is the Charismatic Renewal talking, not the Alpha course.

Maybe volunteer to be on the Alpha team?
 
Thanks for the replies guys. To just reinstate my position my point for this thread for Catholics to be CAUTIOUS of alpha and other mixed denominational programs however if used correctly can be a GREAT experience and help in the formation of ones faith

As I said in an of itself teaching about the basics of Christianity is a good thing. The problem is that if we let some Protestant outside influences pull fellow Catholic into strange and unfounded practices. The screeching, moaning and mumbling invented by the Pentecostals was certainly not the speaking of Tongues scripture tells us of and Catholics never understood it to be this way either. Also the healing events where a few guys walking around putting their hands on people, screaming and shouting enthusiastically is also lunacy. They reduce the rationalism of true healing by turning it into some show. Much the same as you see in the large scale Psychic events which again we Catholics are warned to stay away from.

We Catholics already have more gifts that we could possibly, one of these being the Rosary, let’s go back to understanding our basics aswell as Christianity in general or else we will like many in Church today will see these things as irrelevant.
 
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I am glad to hear that it helped many grow in their faith more and pursue it even further. I have no doubt it bears fruit when done effectively which for the most part it is.
 
Noone is getting worked up mate 🙂. Just sharing my experience an advising others based on it which I feel many have appreciated and others have done themselves. You might not value it but that’s up to you
 
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I read somewhere that there is a Catholic Alpha programme. Can’t remember the name or where I read it at the moment. Search for other posts about Alpha on the Forum or catholic.com to start with.
 
HeDa said:
I read somewhere that there is a Catholic Alpha programme. Can’t remember the name or where I read it at the moment. Search for other posts about Alpha on the Forum or catholic.com to start with.
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Yes, there is. I think it’s called Alpha in a Catholic Context.
 
I took an ALPHA course when I was Episcopalian. My impression was that it had
originated in the Church of England. Maybe I
am wrong.
 
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Paddy1989 said:
Please don’t make connections to gifts from the holy spirit and a modern practice INVENTED by the Pentecostal movement which was created to create a hyper emotional experience based on their own adolescent understanding of worship. A speaking of tongues where one need only practice their hardest to attain it. Protestants do this regularly to give foundations for their sometimes irrational beliefs. We have many with specific Gifts given by the holy spirit, mystic, healers, prophets etc. Compare that to charismatic healing events where it’s like some sort of show, even when the so called healer invokes the holy spirit he sings and shouts with enthusiasm as if saying only the correct words the correct way will heal them as if it’s some sort of spell. Also St Paul was very much against the use of such Gifts by the holy spirit unless intelligible by those who heard it rather than the nonsense mumbled by fundamentalists.

These Catholics were inspired by over enthusiastic Protestants at a time of Great change within the Church. Many end up leaving the Church to attain what they see as a more spiritual transcendence based on what lifts them emotionally.
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I have not been to an Alpha program. As I understand, there is Alpha which is Protestant, NOT for Catholics. THEN there is Alpha for Catholics Short explanation 48:18. THAT version, is designed to make Alpha acceptable for Catholics. Apparently the bishops have approved that version acceptable “for Catholics”

If it makes Catholics better Catholics I’m all for it. However, If it takes poorly formed Catholics and misinforms them even more, then I’m obviously against it.
 
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Thank you, I never knew there was a Alpha for Catholics, surely that is better than the Anglican inspired version
 
I actually started a thread about Alpha over a year ago. Very few comments, none very well informed, just as I see here. I was sort of dumbfounded because it was pushed by our parish priest from the pulpit, and a lot of people signed up, including a lot who had just become Catholic. I took a few minutes to investigate it, and I didn’t like what I found. Start with Wikipedia and go from there.

First, ALL of the Alpha videos are available on Youtube. I’ve watched probably half of them. So you don’t have to take other people’s opinions–watch them yourselves and draw your own conclusions.

A Brit named Nicky Gumbel is behind the current program. He was an atheist in college, and his father was a secular Jew. And yes, the original program was Anglican, but I’ll leave it to Anglicans to decide how “Anglican” it really is. I suspect they won’t find much “Anglican” about it.

This is in no way a Catholic program, and it has things scattered through it that contradict Catholic beliefs. The overall message of the program is questionable: that “feeling” or “emotion” trumps everything else, and that everyone has their own feelings, interpretations, etc. etc. and authority is an obsolete dirty word. I have absolutely no idea how this could be used in the context of a Catholic program. You’d have to stop the video every few minutes and say “Well, what he’s saying contradicts x, y and z.” If presented to a relatively naive person, it would be EXTREMELY misleading and a danger to their faith.

I made notes as I watched different episodes.
Episode I: “truth” is seen as experience rather than intellectual and rational (this fits the overall message of the program, which is an emphasis on “feeling” and “emotion”.)
“Jesus ends the things that spoil our lives…” Really?
“God loves us…he took all of our guilt…” A creative view of Jesus. It was sin, not guilt, Jesus died for. And I’m sure the presenters know the difference.
And the piece de resistance comes at the end of episode 1: “What YOUR point of view is is as important as anyone else’s.” Very New Age, and I’m sure various Protestant sects would approve, but Catholics? Not so much.

Episode 3: “there is no need for guilt or shame now…” Really? We are somehow “beyond sin”? This smacks of “being saved.”
“Justification happens instantly…you are put right with God…” Not exactly the Catholic view.

I could go on. But see for yourselves.
 
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Definitely agree. There were a number of things that were heretical. What I feel is important however is doing the same type of programs but for understanding Catholicism not protestantism.

These mixed denominational programs always end up going in the favour of protestantism because Catholics essentially claim IT is the true Church while protestants do not so what ends up happening is that in order to not offend Protestants on teachings such as about the magisterium of the Church and how it came about we end up being passive to a message that essentially says, just ask for guidance from he holy spirit and it will guide you to truth… Tens of thousands of protestants denominations later each with their own truth it’s clear that doesn’t work. Again as I said the difference I notice with how Catholicism presents christianity and protestantism is that Catholicism is faith through reason while protestantism is reason through faith. This is even more true with the charismatic movement.
 
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I love that we as Catholics in great love and charity hold our hands out to protestants in order to unify them with the Church but today so many forget that’s the goal and they forget why the hand is put out in the first place and end up getting pulled by the other side. Has anyone tried the Catholic version of Alpha?
 
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