Be CAUTIOUS of ALPHA!

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Yes, that was the narrator’s name.
Nicky Gumbel. I bet it was 16 or 17 years ago I did the ALPHA program when I had returned to the Episcopal church after a
25-30 year absence. The program did not do a lot for me and I converted to Catholicism in 2008.
One parish I sometimes visit was offering an ALPHA program. I was a little confused.
I do not know if there actually is a Catholic
version.
 
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We are currently doing a Catholic version of Alpha at our parish and there is nothing whatsoever wrong about it.
It’s Christianity 101. People have a meal together and watch some orthodox instructional video and talk about it.
It’s like an RCIA for Catholics. We had talked about doing a basic instructional program for poorly catechized Catholics, but didn’t want to call it RCIA for Catholics because it’s plainly not a rite. So Alpha is a program that works.

Every parish is different. If you don’t like the flavor of your parish’s version, do something else maybe?
 
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goout said:
We are currently doing a Catholic version of Alpha at our parish and there is nothing whatsoever wrong about it.
It’s Christianity 101. People have a meal together and watch some orthodox instructional video and talk about it.
It’s like an RCIA for Catholics. We had talked about doing a basic instructional program for poorly catechized Catholics, but didn’t want to call it RCIA for Catholics because it’s plainly not a rite. So Alpha is a program that works.

Every parish is different. If you don’t like the flavor of your parish’s version, do something else maybe?
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When I heard our parish was offering an Alpha program, knowing this is a Protestant program, I was immediately irritated. I’m thinking … REALLY? It wasn’t mentioned THEN, that it was the Catholic version. NOT making THAT qualification up front in the announcement, also irritated me because that’s an important point… I had to find out myself that there are 2 versions of Alpha, the Protestant version and the Catholic version. Ergo my post HERE

Just thinking out loud,
since Catholics are in the only Church Our Lord established and gave all His promises to, AND said not even the gates of Hell will prevail against His Church, why then, is the Catholic Church even using, albeit a supposedly fixed version of the Protestant program Alpha for Catholics, to teach poorly formed Catholics about the Catholic faith? 🤔
 
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steve-b said:
to teach poorly formed Catholics about the Catholic faith? 🤔
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That is not the audience for ALPHA. Sure, parishes may advertise it for a different audience, but, many parishes also put baptized Christians in the same formation as unbaptized, so, there is that to be considered.

Alpha is for the unchurched, Christianity 101. Like the “Catholicism” series, this is very basic fundamentals.

ETA. For the poorly formed (or, for those who only got the basics and never studied further) I would suggest Symbalon.
 
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Posters keep referring to it as the protestant version. Would Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterians, evangelicals
take ALPHA? When I took it, I assumed it
was only for Episcopalians and Anglicans.
 
Alpha has been used by many denominations. “Baptist” is a pretty big umbrella term, in my experience most Baptists feel they are well versed in Christianity 101 and would likely not feel the need for such a program.
 
I wouldn’t think Baptists would be interested in a program developed by an
Anglican.
 
My mother and I took the course (well she took the course , I was still at school when the meetings were on so I read the accompanying book). Mam then became a practicing Christian and I chose to get baptised started going to Church and experiences the Holy Spirit. I can honestly say that without alpha I would not be a Catholic today as it’s what started me off searching. That was at a Methodist church
 
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There is no Catholic outreach to other faiths and those of none/ invitation to the faith where I live whatsoever, apart from Alpha. I only knew about RCIA because I had to search it out for myself
 
TheLittleLady said:
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steve-b:
to teach poorly formed Catholics about the Catholic faith? 🤔
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That is not the audience for ALPHA. Sure, parishes may advertise it for a different audience, but, many parishes also put baptized Christians in the same formation as unbaptized, so, there is that to be considered.

Alpha is for the unchurched, Christianity 101. Like the “Catholicism” series, this is very basic fundamentals.

ETA. For the poorly formed (or, for those who only got the basics and never studied further) I would suggest Symbalon.
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Symbolon is very solid but is VERY dry. I like it, but others who are not daily thinking about these things find Symbolon dry and esoteric. Our RCIA candidates found it that way, and we had to make sure we did not inundate them with Symbolon material. We showed important pieces of it and then did face to face catechesis with a priest or deacon.

I have no problem with the Alpha program. I don’t think the participants even realize there is a “protestant version”. They are simply interested to come and share a meal and learn.
 
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goout said:
Our RCIA candidates found it that way, and we had to make sure we did not inundate them with Symbolon material. We showed important pieces of it and then did face to face catechesis with a priest or deacon.
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I would hope that all RCIA prep is done with primarily live humans.
 
thistle said:
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Paddy1989:
Mass Healing ceremonies which are essentially all about a show and mumbling in so called tongues erratically getting caught up in hysteria
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Okay but what heresies have crept into Catholicism.

CCC 2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. " Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."
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Don’t you know that Catholics should never associate with anything that came from Protestants? All of Chesterton’s pre-conversion writings, all of Lewis’ writings are strictly off-limits. Protestants are bad, adolescent heretics and everything we say and do should be eschewed.
 
Convert to catholicism and current catechumen here; I distinctly recall my deacon telling us that there were plans in the works to create a catholic version of Alpha specifically for people like myself. While the original Alpha was created by (low church?) Anglicans, we did have our catechist on only one or two occasions point out differences from Alpha and church teaching.

All in all I think Alpha is a good program. It’ll be even better when they formulate a version for Catholics so as to not require the catechists to point out things that contradict teaching of the Church.
 
See the above link, Catholic Alpha has been available for quite some time now.
 
Ah, must be a matter of distribution then. Either way, Alpha is a good program that parishes should utilize. I think it’s somewhat a necessity for catechists in this day and age. It’s a different approach and we need more of that
 
TheLittleLady said:
Alpha has been used by many denominations. “Baptist” is a pretty big umbrella term, in my experience most Baptists feel they are well versed in Christianity 101 and would likely not feel the need for such a program.
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One could also say then, ( just sayin) 🙂

if they (the Baptists), who were invented by John Smyth in the 17th century, were THAT well versed in Christianity 101, then they’d already know by scripture, that they aren’t in now, nor can they ever be divided from, the only Church Our Lord established in the 1st century…the Catholic Church.

So (just sayin) I guess Alpha isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
 
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That is not what I’m implying, I’m saying be cautious not to become influenced by practices that are contrary to Catholicism which are popular today in many protestant charismatic circles. One can easily read and enjoy the fruits of non Catholic literature, art, culture in general but it is another thing to get swept up by these influences where many eventually lose their faith. Just look at how successful secular society is. We Catholics need to cautious when engaging with it and be steadfast in our faith
 
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TheLittleLady said:
Or simply go to the Alpha Catholic website

https://alphausa.org/catholic

ETA this is a pretty impressive list!

https://alpha-usa.squarespace.com/catholic-board
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I looked at your links and then googled “Alpha program + catholic” and simply found the Alpha sites. Your links are also to the main Alpha site as far as I can see. If there is some separate program with different videos, I’m not sure how they got around copyright laws. But let me know if I am off base here.

Catholics, as anyone who has been on this forum for a while knows, are a diverse group with diverse beliefs, hopefully with a common core. But, as I said in my own post above, I have watched most of the Alpha videos, and there is no way I could consider them “Catholic” in even the broadest sense. In many places they directly contradict Catholic doctrine. They are exactly what they purport to be: An Evangelical take on religion. They are not meant for people with any sort of religious education. As I said before, although the roots of the program are Anglican, I doubt if many Anglicans would agree with the program at this point. They are meant for people who say “Wasn’t Jesus born in the 3rd century?” and so on.

Again, as I said, I don’t see how you could play these videos to a Catholic audience without stopping every few minutes and saying, “Well, clearly they are talking about something totally different than Catholic beliefs here…” And if you DIDN’T stop the video every few minutes, it would be EXTREMELY misleading.

Again, all the videos are on Youtube. A lot of posts here are along the lines of ‘’…I think…" Don’t think. Watch the videos. Then comment. If you haven’t watched the videos, and listened carefully, there is no point in commenting.
 
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