Question
2:
“Would
the Fellowship review and re-affirm what constitutes an AA Group,
within the Fellowship in Great Britain with specific reference to
Traditions 4 - 6?
Background
Consider
the contribution to the carrying of the message, financial and
practical implications when deliberating each question.”
Extract:
“Tradition
Four
“Tradition
Four is a specific application of general principles already outlined
in Traditions One and Two. Tradition One states: ‘Each member of
Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole.’ AA must
continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common
welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.’
Tradition Two states: ‘For our group purpose there is but one
ultimate authority – a loving God as he may express himself in our
group conscience.” (Bill W, ‘Tradition Four’, AA Grapevine March 1948. The Language of the Heart, page
80).
In
reply to ….... I agree the Twelve Traditions provide the answer and
regular group consciences are beneficial to understanding where other
AA Members are coming from. However, these days there are groups that
don’t seem to understand the basic meaning of Traditions Four, One
and Two. They appear to see themselves as their own ultimate
authority. They do not appear to be able to see much beyond their own
group conscience. Or that a group’s decisions can be mistaken, even
though these may carry the majority vote of members within the group.
An
AA group’s conscience is part of the whole group conscience of
Alcoholics Anonymous; each group is part of the whole. If groups hold
regular group consciences and make decisions that do not acknowledge
that for their group purpose, their one ultimate authority is also
the majority opinion of the collective conscience of neighbouring
groups and AA as a whole; in other words, if they do not recognize
that the decisions and recommendations of their local
district/intergroup and the General Service Conference is also their
one ultimate authority; then they are no different to the
Washingtonian
groups. There will be friction between groups, affiliations into this
brand of AA and that brand of AA, leading to public confusion, and
ultimately dissolution of the whole movement.
What
constitutes an AA group, would therefore, sacrifice its own group
conscience decisions in favour of the majority opinion of
neighbouring groups in the district, intergroup, region and the
General Service Conference. There is but one ultimate authority in
AA. This is not an AA group, nor is it an individual AA member, nor
is it the authors of websites and books.
Given
that there are approximately 4,400 AA groups in Great Britain, 93,000
worldwide, only a tiny fraction of ultimate authority is expressed in
an AA group conscience, 4.4 thousandths of the whole in Great
Britain, 93 thousands of the whole worldwide. What constitutes an AA
group would recognize it is but a very small part of a great whole.
“The
group, in turn, found that it had to give up many of its own rights
for the protection and welfare of each member, and for A.A. as a
whole. These sacrifices had to be made or A.A. could not continue to
exist.” (AA Comes of Age page 287)”
Cheerio
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
