AA – the church we did not know we have

I understand that Alcoholics Anonymous iin Britain is run by only three paid staff in York. There may be as many AA branches in each town in Britain as there are churches. Furthermore there may be as many people who come to an active faith and relationship with God as a result of AA, who do so as a result of the ministrations of churches. In fact, it could be argued that Alcoholics Anonymous is the church we did not know we have…

…AA can do no other than trust people who are fragile and vulnerable. Each AA branch is run by people who have come to know their vulnerability, who know what it is like to risk being overwhelmed each and every day. The Church so far has yet to learn how to trust the broken and beaten down. Yet Jesus repeatedly urges us to do something as bizarre as this…

Ann Morisy in Journeying Out

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This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. geoff October 3, 2005

    hey jonny.
    just posted a quote from ann’s book over at the ashram and then popped over here to see you had done the same. synergy?
    the more i read ‘journeying out’ the more i want to tell people about it…stunning book.
    peace.

  2. Sarah H October 3, 2005

    AA may well bring people to a relationship with God but that is not necessarily a Christian experience or even what might be called religious. I think AA and the other 12 step programmes have the unique opportunity to reach people at their particular point of need. The church often faces the much greater challenge of meeting people in their day to day lives with no foreknowledge of what their problems might be or of a share in that common experience.
    I don’t think I view church or faith as a solution to a particular problem and as much as the 12 step programmes do they only teach of the need for forgiveness and the concept of a higher power; there is no mention of salvation or of Jesus.
    There is much that we can learn from the way they work but I think we need a different model in order to be able to appeal to most people in society not only those with a speific compulsive disorder.

  3. Derek October 4, 2005

    those statistics are staggering…
    …and there’s something very uncomforatble about the truth you highlight

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