THE ST. JAMESTOWN GROUP Messenger
Vol. 1 SPECIAL THANKSGIVING EDITION Oct. 2004

A Special Message To All Members Of A.A.
Re: The 65th Anniversary Of The Big Book

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of the disease of alcoholism.
Three score and five years ago, a handful of newly sober alcoholics, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, published an ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ for hopeless alcoholics.
This momentous publication came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of suffering alcoholics who were being seared in the flames of this withering disease.
It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But sixty fives years later, there are millions of suffering alcoholics still not free.
Sixty-five years later, the lives of alcoholics are still sadly crippled by the manacles of alcohol and the chains of alcoholic drinking.
Sixty-five years later, millions of alcoholics still live on lonely islands of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of life.
Sixty fives years later, millions are still languishing in the corners of society and find themselves exiles in their own lives.
And so we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to this anniversary to cash a check.
When the architects of our fellowship wrote the magnificent words of the Big Book, a veritable ‘Declaration of Independence’ for suffering alcoholics, they were signing a promissory note to which every suffering alcoholic was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all who needed or wanted our help yes non-members and members, would be guaranteed the inalienable right to our help.
But it obvious today that the A.A. fellowship has defaulted on this promissory note, in so far as millions of still suffering alcoholics are concerned.
Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, the fellowship of A.A. has given millions of still suffering alcoholics a bad check; a check that has come back marked ‘Insufficient Funds’.
But we refuse to believe that the fellowship’s bank of love is bankrupt.
We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of grace in this fellowship.
And so we have come here to cash this check, a check that will give more millions the riches of a new happiness and the liberation of a new freedom.
We have also come to this hallowed anniversary to remind all members of A.A.
of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of complacency or to take the tranquilizing drug of ingratitude.
Now is the time, to make real the promise of the Responsibility Pledge.
Now is the time, to rise up from the dark and desolate valley of ingratitude, to the sunlight path of the spirit.
Now is the time, to lift our fellowship from the quick sand of selfish things onto the solid rock of spiritual fellowship.
Now is the time, to make forgiveness a reality for all of God’s alcoholic children.
It would be fatal for our fellowship to overlook the urgency of the moment. This auspicious moment in our history cannot pass until there is a collective reinvigoration of our responsibility to anyone reaching out for help.
Two thousand and four is not an end but a new beginning.
Those who hope that we have come here only to blow off steam and now will be content will have a rude awakening if they return to their recoveries and lives with a business as usual attitude.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in our recoveries until the hand of A.A. is stretched out to the many more millions who still need our help. The whirlwind of relapse into the dark pit of alcoholism could still shake the foundations of the unwary and the ungrateful.
We must give away what was so freely given to us.
But there is something that I must say to those new to A.A. who stand
on the warm threshold of the path that leads into the palace of a new freedom and a new happiness.
In the process of regaining our rightful place in life we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of ego feeding propositions.
We must conduct our long struggle for recovery on the high plane of dignity and discipline.
We must not allow our membership in A.A. to degenerate into self-defeating me first perspectives. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting adversity with soul force.
The promise of the marvelous new life which has engulfed our hopes must not lead us to ignore the needs of our brothers and sisters both in and out of our fellowship. We must come to realize that our freedom is inextricably bound to theirs.
We cannot walk alone.
As we walk the road of recovery, we must make the pledge that we must always march ahead with our hands ever reaching out to those reaching out for help.
We cannot turn away.
There are those of you asking, “When will we have done enough?”
We can never be satisfied as long as millions of still suffering alcoholics are being victimized by the unspeakably horrors of chronic alcoholism.
We can never be satisfied as long as there are millions of still suffering alcoholic heavy with the fatigue of traveling the road of degrading hopelessness and helplessness.
We cannot be satisfied as long there are millions who still have no hope and nothing for which to hope for.
We are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied when the lives of alcoholics are still being cruelly victimized.
No, no we are not satisfied.
We will not be satisfied until the freedom so freely given to us rolls down to the still suffering like the waters of a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh out of detoxification units, jail cells, psychiatric wards and treatment centers. Some of you have come from alcoholic experiences that have left you battered by the storms of despair and staggered by the winds of brutal degradation. And others here today have lately been battered by harsh adversities of life and yet others have suffered staggering losses.
You are the veterans of the creative suffering we call recovery. Continue to work with the faith that your suffering lead you to a redemptive serenity and peace.
Go back to your homes, go back to your families, go back to your jobs, and go back to
your daily lives, go back knowing that somehow through the Grace of God and the fellowship’s love, you will be set free from that terrible feeling of self pity and uselessness, set free from fear of economic insecurity, set free from regret, set free from selfishness, set free to see what you can contribute to life.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of recovering a day at a time, we still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the reality of our founder’s dream.
We have a dream that our fellowship will rise up and live out the true meaning of our responsibility pledge, ‘that when anyone anywhere reaches out for help we want the hand of A.A. always to be there’.
We have a dream that one day many more will call themselves grateful members of A.A.
We have a dream that the consoling breeze of the Grace of God will extinguish the
searing flames of withering alcoholism for many millions more.
We have a dream that millions of our loved ones will one day live free from the brutality of the disease and that they will come to judge the sober alcoholic in their lives as persons of good character when not so long ago they were condemned as helpless and hopeless alcoholics.
We have a dream today.
We have a dream that every valley and pit of active alcoholism shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain of adversity encountered in our journey back to health and wholeness shall be made low and that the crooked places in our characters be made straight and the glory of the God of our understanding shall be revealed.
We have a dream that our fellowship will always be a great beacon light of hope.
This is our collective hope as a fellowship.
This is our faith. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith in our hearts we will be able to transform the jangling discords
of our fellowship and the varied difficulties of our personal recoveries, into a beautiful symphony of the spirit.
With this faith we will be able to work together towards greater unity, to pray together,to struggle together, to walk the broad, wide and all-inclusive road of recovery together, freely sharing the sunlight of the spirit and freely giving away what was so freely given to us.
With this faith in out hearts, we will know that one day many more millions will be free one day too. This will be the day when millions more members of A.A. will be able to join in with us to say with renewed faith and vigor,
“Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.”
And if the fellowship of A.A. is to honor its legacy this must become true. So let our collective gratitude ring out loud and long.
Let our gratitude ring out in our meeting rooms!
Let our gratitude ring out in our daily lives!
Let it ring out in our homes and families!
But not only that, let it ring out in our workplaces!
Let it ring out in all of our affairs!
This will be the day when more millions of God’s alcoholic children will be able to sing their praises to the amazing Grace of God and echo the words of the old Negro spiritual,
Free at last!
Free at last!
Thank God Almighty!
We are free at last!