Story by Reagan Scott
LINCOLN (SNR) For the past few months, a group of individuals from parishes across Lincoln have come together to participate in Alpha, an evangelical video series exploring the Christian faith.
It was the group’s goal to explore the program with an eye toward using it more broadly in the Lincoln Diocese.
Alpha is led by an Anglican pastor who is very interested in evangelization and ecumenism; though Alpha takes a broad view of Christianity, the series includes great Catholic figures such as the papal preacher, Father Raniero Cantalamessa and a key organizer of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn.
Father Andrew Heaslip, the director for religious education for the Diocese of Lincoln, said the program has been around for a number of years, but heard it highly recommended by Catholic author Mary Healy when he was in Detroit at Sacred Heart Major Seminary for further studies in evangelization.
“That put it on my radar as a real possibility,” Father Heaslip said.
He asked Lincoln pastors to identify people who had a heart for evangelization, and invite them to participate. The resulting group that formed began to meet in February. They spent time getting to know each other and then watched a video in the series and discussed it.
“I wanted to host the program to get it kickstarted, in the hopes that each participant would take it home to their own parish,” Father Heaslip said.
While Alpha can serve as an introduction to Christianity to those who are unfamiliar with it, the participants, all practicing Catholics, found the program to be beneficial in their own faith journeys.
Angela Zoucha, a member of Sacred Heart Parish in Lincoln, was invited to attend by her pastor, Father Leo Kosch. She said Father Kosch had participated in Alpha and wanted her to participate both for the parish’s good – in the event that they could get it started there – as well as her own.
“Ten minutes into the first video on the first night,” she said, “I realized the Lord wants me to see these videos as a participant, not just as a critical reviewer. Even though the program is fundamentally geared towards non-Christians, it’s just been great even as a Catholic to watch something of this nature.”
Zoucha said she would recommend it to anyone as a “calibration tool,” and that it’s definitely something that she would like to continue to be a part of.
While the group had to switch from in-person meetings to Zoom once the pandemic hit, Julie Heftie, a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, said she felt the move to Zoom didn’t take anything away from the experience.
She said, “I felt inspired every time and very enthusiastic towards the Catholic faith even though it wasn’t related towards the Catholic Church. It’s a very safe and comfortable, welcoming platform, and a lot of us are really excited about doing more with it.”
The group watched the final video in the series last week, which was a beginning introduction to the notion of the church, and while Father Heaslip said the video could be a good basis for discussion if it were being used for an introduction to Christianity, Catholics could go through the program without watching the last video.
The group intends to start mapping out a plan to see how to move forward using Alpha for evangelization both at the parish level, as well as with friends and co-workers.
Heftie said the central messages shared in the videos, of “being Christ to others and being who God wants you to be” were really inspiring. She said she could see herself bringing the program to her work.
Debby Rye, a member of St. Peter Parish in Lincoln said that throughout their time together, the group became really good friends, and she enjoyed seeing what different people in the group had to offer and contribute to each of their discussions.
“Everybody is welcome, no matter what their background is,” she said. “The message I saw over and over was how God loves us unconditionally.”
Rye said she would like to bring the program to St. Peter Parish, but could also see people meeting at a coffee shop to go through the program, or meeting at a restaurant, taking it anywhere, whether someone wanted to use it as an introduction to Christianity or just a faith-builder.
In the end, it was Father Heaslip’s hope that those who participated would be enriched and renewed through the program and inspired to take the Gospel to those who don’t have it or need evangelical renewal.
“It was a very joyful experience for me personally,” Father Heaslip said. “It was a joy to go through Alpha with the group.”
