Alcoholics Anonymous group ‘separated’ and censured for saying ‘Lord’s Prayer’ at meetings

Jan 3, 2022 by Jill

from Christian Concern:

An affiliated Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group has been removed from the organisation’s online directory and ‘separated’ for saying the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and including some Christian content in their meetings.

The group, which was hosting the meetings in a church in Yeovil, Somerset, was told that it would be removed from AA’s register because a new member of the group felt ‘uncomfortable’.

AA was formed in 1935 through the inspiration of an American Lutheran Minister, Frank Buchman. Buchman had suffered from alcoholism before a dramatic conversion to Christianity in Keswick which transformed his life.

Buchman went on to co-found the Oxford Group and launched the ’12 steps programme’, which was based on his Christian spiritual awakening. This has acted as a template for recovering from alcoholism by AA worldwide, ever since.

Minutes from a Somerset Intergroup (SIG), which oversees AA groups in the region, however, has revealed a unanimous vote to remove this AA group from the register saying that they ‘must be kept separate.’

The minutes expose that the group’s meetings had been observed and said that it was a: ‘Christian based meeting, lovely meeting but not along AA guidelines’, and concerns were raised that it was ‘announced “the only way to recovery is through Jesus.”’

The minutes state that ‘there is nothing wrong with talking about Jesus but it is not AA’, and they discuss that a pamphlet that the group share at the meetings, ‘Came to Believe’ ‘has its place, but not within AA.’

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