from Box 459 Summer 2014
Groups Members
United States 59,565 1,296,037
Canada 5,129 93,565
Sub-Total 64,694 1,389,602
Correctional 1,487 35,799
Total (inc misc) 66,184 1,425,472
Outside U.S. & Canada
– 49,174 712,949
Grand Total 115,358 2,138,421
From Chapter Four in the book Alcoholics Anonymous (AKA the Big Book).
“To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face.
“But it isn’t so difficult. About half our original fellowship were of exactly that type. At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics. But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life —or else. Perhaps it is going to be that way with you. But cheer up, something like half of us thought we were atheists or agnostics. Our experience shows that you need not be disconcerted.
“When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God. This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book. Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. “
A new meeting for those with questions about spirituality and how it relates to you. This is a closed meeting and is limited to those who have a desire to stop drinking.
The First United Methodist Church
1825 East Street, Room 12
Redding, CA
Fridays, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Inaugural meeting July 25)
All you need is a desire to stop drinking and an open mind. Questions are encouraged.
Note: Group/Meeting information/history sought. Please contact via comments or directly to cniadistrict11@gmail.com.
Located approximately 13 miles west of downtown Redding in the Whiskeytown N.R.A.
Note: $5.00 Day Use Fees apply, so carpooling is advised. (Unless you have a yearly pass or non-expiring Access pass)
For interactive map, click here.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
“This prayer has been credited to almost every theologian, philosopher and saint known to man. It was actually written around 1932 by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, as the ending to a longer prayer. In 1934, the doctor’s friend and neighbor, Dr. Howard Robbins, asked permission to use this part of the longer prayer in a compilation he was making at the time. It was published in that year in Dr. Robbin’s book of prayers.
“The prayer came to the attention of an early member of A.A. in 1940. He read it in an obituary in the New York Herald Tribune. He liked it so much he brought it to G.S.O., then on Vesey Street, for Bill W. to read. When Bill and the staff read the little prayer they felt that it particularly suited the needs of A.A. Cards were printed and passed around. Thus has this simple little prayer become a part of the A.A. literature. ” (From the July, 1961 A.A. Exchange Bulletin)
“When the Grapevine last reported on the origin of the Serenity Prayer (January, 1950, issue), we had traced it to Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, who set it down in 1932 in very much the form given above. Dr. Niebuhr said at the time that he thought it might have been spooking around for years, even centuries…’
“Now an alert A.A. has sent us a clipping from the Paris Herald Tribune of an article written by its Koblenz (West Germany) correspondent: “In the rather dreary hall of a converted hotel, overlooking the Rhine at Koblenz, framed by the flags of Prussian regiments rescued from the Tannenberg memorial, is a tablet inscribed with the following words: ‘God give me the detachment to accept those things I cannot alter; the courage to alter those things which I can alter; and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.’ These words (are) by Friedrich Otenger, and evangelical pietist of the eighteenth century…’” (From the November, 1964 A.A.Grapevine.)
*Excerpts from A.A. service material, SMF-141.
For a more in-depth background, see SMF-129, A.A.’s compiled history of the prayer as it surfaced when they were researching.
District 11 News 