Sandy talks about the importance of vigilance in maintaining our spiritual pattern. When we let up, life gets heavy and AA is not as much fun anymore. It starts with the smallest little change that our friends notice first. This also applies to our home group and to AA in general. We have one problem alcoholism - one solution - God.
Tom is not a pessimist but he does have some concerns about what AA is. In 1955 Bill turned the fellowship over to the membership - a momentous move that has not been followed through enough. The design was for the leadership to come from the fellowship and not from the penthouse.
It is a pretty good plan but we have done a poor job of implementing it.
North Carolina had 23% participation of the groups and that ratio holds nationally. We need more fully functioning three legacy groups. Also, we are losing the battle for singleness of purpose. We are heading toward the need for a worldwide group conscience.
Clancy agrees with Sandy and Tom. He shares how GSO is no longer closing their meeting with the Lord's Prayer because it offends some people. Most groups do not have a GSR and if they do they are not fully utilizing them. Then he talks about a man who asked him "Why does AA work?" "I don't think anybody in the world knows why AA works." A perfect analogy is the small pox epidemic in the 1700's.
(38 min) (13.2 MB) (id#918)