From our 50th Anniversary of AA in Bristol, February 2003
The Address from the Service of Thanksgiving
Bristol Cathedral on Sunday 23 February 2003
"This weekend we have been marking 50 years of Alcoholics Anonymous in Bristol with a celebration at this European Convention Reunion. Now we are here in this great Cathedral as the anniversary draws to a close remembering and giving thanks for our founders: Bill W., Dr Bob and, closer to home, Dr. Jim and Travers.
Make no mistake about it, Bristol has played an important part in making European AA history, chiefly because of its long-standing link with the 1st Dublin group the first AA group in Europe and two of that group's founding members, Sackville and Richard P. Bristol has also been blessed with strong links with other cities such as Chicago, New York, Birmingham and latterly Los Angeles, Little Rock and Glasgow. Of special note is the return each year of hundreds of men and women the length and breadth of this country to attend the Bristol Reunion which means only one thing - they found a significant part of their recovery in Bristol.
For many years this city, often called 'recovery city', has been a light for many a down-trodden alcoholic. From Hospital groups to Prison groups, many have found their freedom. What we have seen is the rebirth in Alcoholics Anonymous of an ancient story - that of the Good Samaritan - being played out every day. Many are convinced that Alcoholics Anonymous was the greatest miracle of the 20th century. It has returned shattered lives to sanity, reunited homes and banished despair. It has confounded medicine and offered a solution to that age old problem alcoholism. Sackville summed up our debt to Alcoholics Anonymous so well when he said: " I am so very grateful to AA for my recovery. Under God, I owe AA my life, my health, my reason, everything that I have, everything that I am today. One of its finest gifts to me has been to give me back the chance to make real friends."
From what small beginnings do little acorns grow. Cast your mind back to 1953 and to dear Dr. Jim newly arrived in this city having to start a group from scratch; to the first meeting at the Full Moon and the early group difficulties that arose, to finding a suitable venue; to assistance of the non-alcoholic in our midst showing itself early on, when the social worker, Dorothy Himsworth sought out the little group she was determined to help and offered them a venue at the Social Service building in Berkeley Square; to the arrival of the first lady member who stayed, dear Daisy in 1957; to Travers, to whom we owe so much in England, who came along in 1959 and started the second Bristol group in 1964 and much more besides; to Jane Francis that other non-alcoholic, a spiritual friend to many in Ireland and Britain and as important to us on this side of the Atlantic as Lois, Bill's wife, and Nell Wing his trusted secretary for many years, is on their side of the Ocean.
All these early members were Pioneers and they had no other message to carry other than the message of AA as contained in 12 Steps. Travers said at the World Convention in 1990, that it was relatively easy to be a Pioneer because you tried this and you tried that and if it didn't work you tried something else. He said the harder task was for us who follow on to keep this thing alive by keeping faith with our early members and with what really works, our 12 Steps and 12 Traditions. Sadly, however, our Service Structure both here and in North America tell us that our Fellowship is contracting and that we are losing members rather quicker than we are gaining them. Some members offer an explanation in the fact that they feel we are moving away from our basic spiritual message of recovery from alcoholism and that opinions, interpretations, other issues, and even other substances have become subjects of discussion in our meetings. There is concern today, therefore, in all parts of Alcoholics Anonymous as to what is going to happen to the growth of our Fellowship in the future. I would like to close by quoting Travers and retelling a story that some of you may have heard him tell a long time ago at the First European Convention.
"All the talk, all the experience you've gained here, what you do with it is your own business. It can be used for good or it can be just left and forgotten. You have a choice, something I didn't have over alcohol - I had no choice. I came to AA and they gave me the opportunity of a choice as to whether I drank or not . And this choice I have today is mine, it is nobody else's what I do with it. It no longer thank God applies only to alcohol. It applies to so many other things inside me - I have a choice with my life. I have a choice of good over evil.
"From Texas I learned a little story. It was a story of the small township where all the people went for advice, for guidance, for counselling to a wise old man who lived on a hill outside in a little house. For years they did this and they were never denied and they got the right advice at the right time. And then there came a lawyer, or, as the Americans call him, a counsellor and he set up in practice. And he did not do very well because everybody in that township still continued to go to the wise old man on the hill. And eventually this counsellor got resentment and he called a few of his cronies together and said that old man up on the hill, he's killing my business. I'll settle his hash. And they said how are you going to do that?
"He said, it's very simple, he said next Saturday morning I'll take you lot along and few people from the town and I'll show them that he's not infallible with his wisdom. I shall go along, cupped in my hands there will be a bird, the tail feathers will be sticking out so that he can see it's a bird. I'll kick the door he'll come to the door and he'll say, what do you want? And I'll say, old man, what have I got in my hands? And he will look down and he will see the tail feathers sticking out and he will say, it's a bird my son. And I shall say right old man, now tell me, is it alive or dead? And if he says dead, I shall release my hands and the bird will fly away and he will be wrong. But if he says alive I shall tighten my hands and the bird will be dead and I will show them that he is wrong.
"And the next Saturday morning they all went up to the old man's house and the story had got around, and the whole township went to prove the old man's wisdom. And the counsellor got to the door and he knocked on the door and he held out his hands, and the old man came and he said, what do you want my son? And the counsellor said, tell me old man, what have I got in my hands and the old man looked down and said, it is a bird my son, a bird; and the counsellor said, right old man, right. Now tell me, is it alive or is it dead? And the old man looked at him and said, it is as you choose my son - as you choose."