St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church to host Alpha series this fall 

St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church in Cape Girardeau will host the Alpha series from Sept. 8 to Nov. 24 on Sundays from 11:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The series aims to provide an open and safe place to discuss faith, Jesus, and the meaning of life.

Co-hosts RaeAnne and Hugh Protzel started bringing the Alpha program to St. Vincent DePaul after COVID-19 in hopes of helping to rebound back and restructure the hospitality committee. R. Protzel said they know some people can still not return while others may have fallen away from their faith in general whether it be as Catholics or other religious upbringing they had.

“I was discussing some of our ideas with my husband and he said, ‘Maybe we should do Alpha again. I guess I had blinders on but about probably eight to 10 years ago we did Alpha at St. Vincent. My husband said yeah, I participated in that and I was a table leader. We had great attendance when we were under a different pastor at that time.” R. Protzel said. “So we did some research and brought it up to our pastor Father Rick and another lady who was on the team said, ‘Yeah, I remember alpha. We did do that. But it was kind of a one-and-done. We did it. Check mark never did it again.’ So Father, Rick, and the four or five of us started to look into it. Just doing some research, we made some phone calls with the Alpha organization. And we just thought why are we not doing this at St. Vincent? So that's really how it came to be is through just restructuring and enhancing our hospitality committee.”

St.Vincent DePaul will be holding its third Alpha series but will be changing its structure of it tiny bit. The Alpha series will meet after their Sunday 10 a.m. mass at the church around 11:30 a.m. each week.

“We will start at lunch for any of our Alpha participants. From there we'll have a faith formation video which is typically 25 to 30 minutes long. Then we'll break into small groups, each led by a table leader, and just discuss some of the points that were brought out in this short video. So that's kind of the format that we're following. The videos each week, address a different part of Who is Jesus? The first video session I believe is entitled’ Who is this Jesus anyway?’ Other topics throughout the session include things like is there more to life than this? Who is the Holy Spirit? How can I have faith? How do I move forward in my faith?.” R. Protzel said.

Alpha is a worldwide Christian movement that offers a weekly series featuring lunch, a video, and a non-judgmental discussion on various topics stated in a press release. The event is free to attend, but participants must register. Free childcare is available for potty-trained children through age 11.

St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church has seen success with previous Alpha series, including one earlier this year that reached full capacity. Jennifer Smith Broeckling, a table host for the early 2024 series, stated in a press release her excitement for the upcoming Alpha series.

“It’s exciting to welcome people of all faith backgrounds (or no faith background at all) to this upcoming Alpha series. We look forward to sharing a meal, watching a video, and hearing what people in our community have to say about questions we’ve all wrestled with in our lives at one time or another. Whether people have fallen away from their faith, or aren’t sure what they believe at all, this program is for them.”

St.Vincent DePaul church will also have an Alpha Day Away where the group will head out for a short retreat to the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.

R. Protzel said it is just a retreat day and not required for all Alpha attended to attend but it is a day to get out of the church to watch more videos and have discussions and snacks with the others while the overall focus for the day being the Holy Spirit.

The Alpha series offers an opportunity for the community to engage in meaningful discussions about faith and life. Interested individuals are encouraged to register early due to past capacity issues.

“It's open to anyone we're even opening it up to our church members if they would like to come for you know, a refresher about the faith. But we just want to introduce the Christian faith, and Jesus, not just Catholicism, but just the idea of the Christian faith, that faith the Holy Spirit evangelization, um, to anyone who has not been in church for a while, or anyone who seems to be missing something in their life.” R. Protzel said.

To register, call 573-335-7667 or email contactus@svparish.com. More information is available on Facebook at Alpha at St. Vincent de Paul in Cape Girardeau, MO, or at http://SVCape.com/alpha/.