AA Preamble
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.
There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes.
Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
Copyright © The AA Grapevine, Inc. Reprinted with permission
Open Meeting Statement
This is an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. We are glad you are all here - especially newcomers. In keeping with our singleness of purpose and our Third Tradition which states that “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking,” we ask that all who participate confine their discussion to their problems with alcohol.
(The 1987 General Service Conference made this statement available as an A.A. service piece for those groups who wish to use it.)
Closed Meeting Statement
This is a closed meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. In support of A.A’s singleness of purpose, attendance at closed meetings is limited to persons who have a desire to stop drinking. If you think you have a problem with alcohol, you are welcome to attend this meeting. We ask that when discussing our problems, we confine ourselves to those problems as they relate to alcoholism.
(The 1987 General Service Conference made this statement available as an A.A. service piece for those groups who wish to use it.
Ninth Step Promises
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us-sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.
Reprinted from the book Alcoholics Anonymous
Copyright © 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001 by A.A. World Services, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Tenth Step Promises
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone-even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality-safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
Reprinted from the book Alcoholics Anonymous
Copyright © 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001 by A.A. World Services, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Declaration of Unity
This we owe to A.A.’s future: to place our common welfare first; to keep our Fellowship united.
For on A.A. unity depend our lives and the lives of those to come.
Reprinted with permission of AA World Services Inc.
Responsibility Statement
I am Responsible.
When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there.
And for that: I am responsible.
Reprinted with permission of AA World Services Inc.
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