In the back hall of St Dominic’s Parish in Flemington, a small revolution in the Catholic church of Sydney made its debut over moon cakes and morning tea.
As a sign of the growth of the Catholic Chinese Community, Alpha Australia launched a new Chinese Alpha film series for Mandarin-speaking audiences.
A group of 30 Australian-Chinese leaders, predominantly from the Ashfield and Flemington communities, gathered in the Western Sydney Chinese Community Hall, for their first taste of this world first—an Alpha series featuring Chinese hosts, a Chinese pastor and filmed in locations throughout China.
“They’re the fasting growing demographic and an incredible community that we want to reach out to,” said Huw Warmenhoven, from Alpha International.
“We can’t do that without tailoring the proclamation of the gospel into their language. We’re here, this morning, to reach out to the Chinese community in our parishes, in our diocese and make it accessible to them.”
For the first time Alpha have contextualised their series for a Mandarin speaking audience to explore life, faith, and meaning through their language and through new content, culturally relevant to them.
The series features Fr Andrew Chai, who is joined by two Chinese hosts to unpack the basics of the Christian faith in a Chinese context.
“Providing this series in Mandarin is going to enable access to the gospel for so many families, individuals, groups, young people that haven’t had access to the Christian message in quite this way before,” said Daniel Ang, Director of the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation.
“We are a diverse church. We’re not just one language, one tribe, or one style, and the Catholic Church can hold all this diversity together in one faith. And to have resources that support that sharing and transmission of faith is a wonderful thing.”
Alpha is on track to reach 100,000 Australians and 1.9 million people across the world this year alone. Through this new series, they’re hoping to invite 1.5 billion Chinese faithful and inquirers to experience the series.
For parishioner and community leader Anne Wu, the series is a game changer.
“We are hungry for this resource! God’s been doing wonderful work in our community, and this is the beginning of a journey together. Alpha is a great program, but especially if it’s in Chinese, speaking our language, familiar to us, it has more impact,” she said.
St Dominic’s Parish priest, Fr Joseph Yong Lu, knows only too well how deeply his community desires formation, having run Alpha twice in his parish to great success.
“Each time the numbers get better. We just finished our second Alpha this year in February, and we got 80 people. Forty-six of them joined the next step, RCIA. So, it’s amazing,” he said.
“With Alpha now launched in Chinese, a lot of people have said this is really touching our culture. That God is in our culture! This is a way to share evangelisation with their friends and the family of members around them. It’s a great tool for all of us to utilise.”
The nods and smiles of familiarity and recognition among the audience speak volumes as they soak in the local in-jokes, cultural references, a new graphic style and familiar locations sprinkled throughout the episode.
Huw can see this new “bespoke” Alpha Series inspiring the next wave of Catholic faith.
“St John Paul II wrote a document called Ecclesia in Asia. And at the heart of that is that the third millennium is a millennium for the Chinese church and for the Asian church to grow,” he said.
“But we can’t do that if it’s just taking a resource from the West. It’s actually saying we want to release the charisma, release Jesus into this community.”
Daniel Ang believes this focussed invitation of faith to the Chinese community is only the beginning.
“We have so many different migrant groups present here in the Archdiocese of Sydney. This is just the start of that revolution of sharing the gospel with as many people, in as many cultures and languages as we can throughout Sydney,” he said.
“All of this in the lead-up to the International Eucharistic Congress in 2028 which will be a wonderful celebration of our many faces and common faith in the Risen Christ.”
But today, as the series preview ends and the parishioners clamour together for photos, pastries and moon cakes, there’s no mistaking the smile on Fr Joseph’s face as the Chinese credits roll and a new chapter begins.
“I can already see their faces change and their desire now is to serve, to pray, to read the Gospel, to share, to reach out,” said Fr Joseph.