(New Beginnings, No.5)
What is Alpha?
Alpha is a ten-week, fifteen-session practical introduction to the Christian faith. It is designed primarily for non-churchgoers and new or lapsed Catholics. It is also proving to be a great blessing for church-going Catholics seeking renewal in the basics of their faith.
Alpha originates from the Church of England and is now being run by churches of all denominations, including many hundreds of Catholic parishes around the world. It is also being used in 120 of Britain’s 158 prisons. Courses are also running in many schools, universities and colleges of higher education.
Alpha is helping Catholics respond practically to the challenges of evangelization. Pope John Paul II wrote, ‘I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelization.’
How does it work?
Courses are held in a variety of venues but predominantly in church halls, community centres and homes. Some courses are held during the day, but most are in the evening.
At the evening events, there is a light meal followed by a talk on a subject central to the Christian faith. The talks are available on video, and are lively and enjoyable to watch. The talks are also available in written format.
After the talk, participants divide into pre-arranged groups of about 10-12 people (in which they remain for the duration of the course) to discuss the talk in an environment where each person should feel free to ask or express whatever they wish. Each group has a leader and two or three helpers. During the course there is a weekend or day away to explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Bishop Ambrose Griffiths OSB on Alpha
Ambrose Griffiths, a Benedictine monk, is the Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. He wrote about Alpha:
‘Why am I keen on Alpha? Why do I think Alpha is a good thing? In my own diocese, and there is no exception across the country, I cannot help noticing that our congregations are getting smaller and older and have been doing so for a number of years. We do not seem to be attracting young people. We do not seem to be attracting many of the young families that send their children to Catholic schools.’
‘Why is that? It cannot possibly be that the message is wrong because we have the words of eternal life: Christ Jesus who is Lord and who has the words of eternal life is the best message that has ever been, and yet we don’t manage to get it across.’
‘We want to evangelize but we do not seem to have found the right message. I think that the Alpha course offers easily the best method so far invented and I am immensely grateful to Sandy Millar and Nicky Gumbel for what they have done in developing this course and now in sharing it with us.’
‘Why is it successful? I think it is because it answers the questions that people are asking today. It is user-friendly. It is not confrontational. It is presented in everyday language. It is full of excellent stories and illustrations so that the whole thing becomes enjoyable. It is compelling, but no one is pressurized.’
‘It is given in the context of a meal and that, in fact, is what Christ did with so much of his teaching. Above all it enables us to come to know the Lord Jesus. When those first two disciples of Saint John the Baptist followed him, he turned round and said, “What are you looking for?… Come and see.” They went and stayed with him and they became his disciples. That is what we are led to do.’
Alpha meets people where they are. It befriends them. They feel affirmed and they enjoy it. Because they enjoy it and are enthused by it, they then invite their friends to attend the next course and so it grows. That is the experience of many churches. Alpha has spread to 14 countries. The numbers attending it grow and grow, from 5 courses in 1992, to 5,000 in 1996, and to 16,150 in 2000.
It was originally devised for a well-heeled congregation in London but you may be surprised to hear that it works equally well with the simplest and poorest. They love it. Young people are inspired by it. They ask when the course will be run again.
Above all it is excellently designed to reach out to the young families who have placed their children in Catholic schools but themselves are not committed beyond that. It is not that they have not got good will, but they know very little about the faith and very little about Jesus Christ. Perhaps they think that they do, but if they come to this course they will discover enormous riches that they never knew before.
The course has been criticized. There have been letters to the press and so on. It has been said that it is not Catholic. Why should Catholics do it? Well, if we look at the teaching of Vatican II we are clearly told that we should seek whatever is good and true wherever we find it. I think we should have the humility to learn from our fellow Christians and realize that they have a great deal to teach us and we have riches to share with them.
Alpha does not contain anything that is directly opposed to Catholic teaching. It does not go as far in some aspects as we would want to. The nuances are not perhaps the same as we would give in every case. But, to my mind, that doesn’t matter. It is essentially a basic introduction to Christianity and, above all, brings us into contact, face to face with the Lord Jesus. Once you become a friend, a disciple of the Lord Jesus, everything else follows because Christianity is not a structure of rules. It is a discipleship of Jesus who is God. That is where it leads us.
I have been quoted as saying, “Many Catholics have been sacramentalized but not evangelized.” By that I mean that they know about the sacraments and have been through the motions: baptism, first communion, confirmation and so on. But they have never somehow, amazingly in some cases, come to realize that Jesus is their friend, their Saviour. He is and can be the very centre of their lives. Once you know the Lord Jesus you are open to everything else. That is what this course helps us to do, so I would very strongly recommend it.
The final thing that I would like to say is that no course succeeds without prayer. One parish that I know spends every evening backed up by people praying. Where there is prayer, there the Holy Spirit can work; there the Lord Jesus comes to people. Prayer is essential.
There should be complete freedom for everyone to pray totally quietly or as exuberantly as they wish. Let everybody be free. If only we would let people be free in the Church, the Church would grow.
If Christ means a lot to us then we want to praise his name. This course helps us precisely to come to know the Lord Jesus, to become his disciples, and then we long to go out and share that with other people’.
What happens after Alpha?
Alpha is only the first step. After attending an Alpha course many people want to continue meeting in small groups to support each other and to continue to deepen their faith. The Alpha for Catholics office is developing a library of Catholic teaching videos and other resources to follow the Alpha course.
Information may be had from: –
The Alpha for Catholics Office
P.O. Box 333, Saint Alban’s,
Herts AL2 1EL
England.
Tel/Fax: 00 44 1727 822 837,
Or info@catholicalphaoffice.org