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Quakers and Jesus: Christ as Center | Practicing Resurrection Together

Quakers and Jesus: Christ as Center | Practicing Resurrection Together

November 25, 2015

Quakers and Jesus: Christ as Center

By jtower11

Georgefox at the breadline

*Note this series begins with “Quakers and Jesus: First Things

I will conclude this series with the last, especially unique Quaker conception of Jesus, that of Christ as the Center. Thomas Kelly, a 20th century Quaker mystic and philosopher, was perhaps best known for his writings later entitled A Testament of Devotion after his death. As Quakerism’s most famous leaders of that time, such as Rufus Jones, Douglas Steere, Thomas Kelly, and D. Elton Trueblood pursued philosophy rather than theology, a subtle shift in language about Jesus began to emerge, most noticeably the now ubiquitous terminology of Christ as the Center. Quaker sacramentology began a slow shift[1] toward one of a “Pan sacramental sense of holiness of every life; relationship is intimately connected to an inward sense of communion.”[2] Thomas Kelly began to build in new ways upon a theology of Christ as the Inner Light.[3] In the first chapter of A Testament of Devotion he writes:

“Deep within us all there is an inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice to which we may continually return. Eternity is at our hearts pressing upon our time-worn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home into Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life.

It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories on the face of humans. It is a seed stirring to life, if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action, and He is within us all.”

Kelly links his conception of the Center to that of the Inner Light. While “Center” may at first be seen as a related term to “within,” Kelly seems to give it much more nuanced and philosophical significance. He writes of this Light as the flaming center of religion,[4] and the Center of Creation.[5] Kelly echoes Barclay and others in speaking of an unceasing orientation of the depths of our being toward the Light, Christ at the Center;[6] where life is to be lived from the Center of our being.[7] For Kelly, living this kind of life stemmed from what he called “Holy Obedience,” which he understood as a continual submission of the will to the work of God in a person. Kelly saw this continual submission through a kind of Christian existentialism, with some similarities to what Jean Pierre De Caussade referred to as the sacrament of the present moment. Kelly referred to the present moment as the Eternal Now, a conception in which the finiteness of humanity encountered the infiniteness of God placed in the human heart. The submission Kelly speaks of is a form of self-oblation, as the Light illumines within it is both filled with glory and wonder, yet also pain. He speaks of this as the “X-ray light of eternity,” a guidance of the Light that he describes as “critical, acid, sharper than a two edged sword.”[8]

Conclusion

Quakers are not especially known for their Christology, yet their Christological assumptions, experiences, and orientation have, and continue, to greatly influence Christian spiritual formation. Their Christology attempted to navigate their experiences and the misunderstandings and arguments of their critics, forged a unique answer to the paradox of divine sovereignty and human freedom as it pertains to soteriology, and continues to make an impact far beyond the small size of Quakerism’s many adherents. Yet one could argue that all of this was a byproduct of their discovery of a mystical, Logos Christology, one that emphasized the immediacy of God not only in a personal relationship, but a corporate one as well. Quakerism has sought to follow Jesus more than explain him, to let him be the head of the church in ways that lead to practical action, dynamic and rich contemplative reflections, and humble and honest self-examination. Rooted in Christian orthodoxy and mystical experience, they aim at a Christology that is more than a doctrine, it is an invitation to “a life filled with God.”[9]

Query: There is a real danger in our Society to view faith more as intellectual assent than dynamic connection with Christ. How do we—as Friends of Jesus—make room at the center of our lives for a Jesus who is more than a doctrine, but an inward reality bursting outward that ripples through every corner of our lives?

Other Posts in this series:

Quakers and Jesus: First Things

Quakers and Jesus: Toward a Quaker Christology

Quakers and Jesus: Christ as Present Teacher and Lord

Quakers and Jesus: Christ as Seed and Inner Light 

Quakers and Jesus: Christ as Center

References

[1] Elton, Trueblood, The People Called Quakers. New York: Harper & Row, 1966, 128.

[2] Douglas V. Steere, Quaker Spirituality, 18.

[3] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds, Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups., rev. and expanded. ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005, 175.

[4] Thomas R. Kelly, The Eternal Promise, 60.

[5] Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), 4.

[6] Ibid, 5.

[7] Ibid, 92.

[8] Ibid. 22.

[9] Thomas R. Kelly, The Eternal Promise, 73.

 

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Contemplative Prayer (The Visions of Thomas Kelly and Thomas Merton)

Contemplative Prayer (The Visions of Thomas Kelly and Thomas Merton)

Contemplativ Contemplative Prayer (The Visions of Thomas K er (The Visions of Thomas Kelly and Thomas elly and Thomas Merton)
Keith R. Maddock 
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1-1-1999 
Contemplative Prayer (The Visions of Thomas Kelly and Thomas Merton) 
Keith R. Maddock 

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/qrt 
 
Recommended Citation 
Maddock, Keith R. (1999) "Contemplative Prayer (The Visions of Thomas Kelly and Thomas Merton)," Quaker Religious Thought: Vol. 92 , Article 3. 
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/qrt/vol92/iss1/3 


This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quaker Religious Thought by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact arolfe@georgefox.edu. 
 
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER 
(THE VISIONS OF THOMAS KELLY AND
THOMAS MERTON)
KEITH R. MADDOCK


The tension between action and contemplation is one of the oldest and most divisive issues in religious life. We are faced with familiar complaints about complacency in conventional religion on the one hand, and social activism motived by secular or political rather than spiritual values on the other. Yet spiritual leaders and reformers have wrestled with this tension for centuries, and have sought to integrate contemplation and action into a holistic view of life centered in God.
Thomas Kelly and Thomas Merton were visionaries for a renewal of spiritual life in their own times of transition. Kelly spoke out of the period between two world wars, including economic depression, when traditional religious values were subjected to assault on all fronts. It took great courage for him to advocate a spirituality of relevance and personal transformation at that time. In the years following the second world war, another wave of spirituality swept over the western hemisphere, this time in response to excessive optimism based on economic prosperity. Thomas Merton, a popular writer in both Catholic and non-Catholic communities, warned his contemporaries not to ignore the dark side of progress. The experience of grace demands an embrace of suffering, and continuing engagement with oppressive powers. 
In our present time of transition, we may appreciate the ecumenical outlooks of Thomas Kelly and Thomas Merton. There is some affinity between them as middle-class American men trying to define a religious base for their personal lives in a secular world. But their most lasting achievements are their recipes for spiritual integrity in a busy North American context, adaptations of one of the most ancient disciplines in the Judeo-Christian tradition—a life ordered and inspired through contemplative prayer. Douglas Steere, another American Quaker, focused on their common ground when he wrote, “Would it be going too far to suggest that what we are after in the nurture of prayer is a continual condition of prayerfulness, a constant sensitivity to what is really going on?”1
41
42 • 
Kelly and Merton both believed that the seed of faith requires a measure of solitude, or renunciation of the world, to germinate. Faith nurtured in solitude enables the contemplative to return into the world with a deeper commitment to its transformation. Prayer then becomes a holistic discipline that prepares the ground for love to mature into service. Furthermore, their understanding of contemplative prayer suggested a way of spiritual fulfillment that is potentially available to everyone.
Although Merton was writing for a specific community, he stressed the contemplative orientation of the whole life of prayer. “Certainly in the pressures of modern urban life,” he wrote, “many will face the need for a certain interior silence and discipline simply to keep themselves together, to maintain their human and Christian identity and their spiritual freedom.”2 While Merton was coming from a tradition accustomed to formal religious disciplines, Quakers have often been ambivalent about the need for outward signs of inward experience. Nevertheless, the objective in silent worship is to bring one’s mind to a stillness that is the measure of discernment for the whole of one’s life. 
Kelly goes further when he suggests, “The practice of inward orientation is the heart of religion.”3 In A Testament of Devotion, he referred specifically to the need for inner discipline to redirect our experience of worship into the whole of our lives. “What is here urged are secret habits of unceasing orientation of the deeps of our being about the Inward Light, ways of conducting our inward life so that we are perpetually bowed in worship, while we are also very busy in the world of daily affairs.”4
But how is a state of continuous prayer to be interpreted for an uncloistered and reformed religious community, where complacency or ambivalence in outward observance is often the norm? Kelly recognized that many of us long for something more than the moderate, halfhearted religiosity we so often experience. He challenged Quakers to recover the passion of their own tradition.
Many of us have become as mildly and conventionally religious as were the church folk of three centuries ago, against whose mildness and mediocrity and passionlessness George Fox and his followers flung themselves with all the energy of dedicated lives. In some, says William James, religion exists as a dull habit.
Religion as a dull habit is not that for which Christ lived and died.5

DRYNESS, DEPRESSION, AND THE DARK NIGHT OF
THE SOUL

Complacency involves an avoidance of contemplation, because contemplation is often associated with images of darkness, absence, and emptiness—conditions that emerge when things are not going well, when lives seem to be going to pieces, when all that carried meaning for us is broken and there is nothing we can think of or envision to improve matters. 
Yet this state may be the most fertile ground for moral and spiritual growth. Learning how to embrace rather than flee darkness often results in a creative restructuring of our patterns of thought and behaviour. Stripped of familiar ideas and illusions about ourselves, our world, and God, we may be able to let go of narrow or false understandings of human existence manufactured by our personal and social anxieties. According to Merton, “It means the renunciation of all deluded images of ourselves, all exaggerated estimates of our own capacities, in order to obey God’s will as it comes to us in the difficult demands of life in its exacting truth.”6
After a visit to pre-war Germany in 1938, Thomas Kelly drew attention to the fatalism he observed in American religious life. With characteristic eloquence, he wrote, “if you will accept as normal life only what you can understand, then you will try only to expel the dull, dead weight of Destiny, of inevitable suffering which is a part of normal life, and never come to terms with it or fit your soul to the collar and bear the burden of your suffering which must be borne by you, or enter into the divine education and drastic discipline of sorrow, or rise radiant in the sacrament of pain.”7
Surrender to the darkness is also the end of self-sufficiency. One is freed from autonomous self-images toward a deeper, more relational sense of personhood. There comes an awareness that we cannot ultimately be defined by our strengths and weaknesses. Merton adds that the deep night “is a great gift of God, for it is the precise point of our encounter with his fullness.”8 The fruit of self-surrender is a wholly new way of perceiving and relating to others. 
44 • 
For Thomas Merton, contemplative prayer is not an external discipline, but something that happens within the depths of our inmost selves. Through it we come to recognize God as the deepest centre of our being, an intuition grounded and ending in love. Kelly uses the expression “holy blindness” for that love-infused, relational perception of the world. He writes that this blindness is like that of a person who looks steadily at the sun and then sees only the afterimage of the sun whenever he turns his eyes back toward the earth. He continues, “The God-blinded soul sees naught of self, naught of personal degradation or of personal eminence, but only the Holy Will working impersonally through him, through others, as one objective Life and power.”9

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER AND SOCIAL CONCERN

Contemplative prayer turns one toward the neighbour. This insight means that while we may learn to experience the whole of life more fully, we are also called to enable others to do so. In The Contemplative Life: Its Meaning and Necessity, Merton writes, “Contemplation, at its highest intensity, becomes a reservoir of spiritual vitality, that pours itself out in the most telling social action.”10
Kelly envisioned prayer as an intimate relationship with God, through which we may become mediums for God’s will to be known. We become receptive rather than passive, and motivated to action by a will that is not our own.
Prayer becomes not hysterical cries to a distant God, but gentle upliftings and faint whispers, in which it is not easy to say who is speaking, we, or an Other through us. Perhaps we can only say: Praying is taking place. Power flows through us, from the Eternal into the rivulets of Time.11
As the practice of contemplative prayer, religion is not a complement to other aspects of life, but that which underlies and infuses all we do. Merton writes about the necessity for inner solitude in the midst of the busy-ness of modern life in order to strengthen our resolve for service in the world. Similarly, Kelly sought a spiritual resource to nurture and empower all of life’s endless round of activity.
Religion isn’t something to be added to our other duties, and thus make our lives yet more complex. The life with God is the center of life, and all else is remodeled and integrated by it. It gives the singleness of eye…We can get so fearfully busy trying to carry out the second great commandment…that we are under-developed in our devoted love to God. But we must love God as well as neighbor.12
Contemplation involves entering into the core of our being and then passing through that core and out of ourselves into God and into God’s world with a renewed sense of vocation. Awareness of this incarnated intimacy is meant to be shared with others. Kelly draws inspiration from the biblical metaphor of Christ’s transfiguration, a sign in his restless search for direction. “There are a few,” he writes, “who, like those on the Mount of Transfiguration, want to linger there forever and never return to the valleys of men, where there are demons to be cast out.” There is more to the experience of God than being plucked out of the world. He continues, “The fuller experience is of a Love which sends us out into the world.”13
Although each person will find intimacy with God in his or her own way, we can say that the life of prayer for all leads to both the unitive knowledge of God in contemplation and selfless good will and charity toward others. This is what Merton means when he asserts that every Christian is potentially a contemplative. He wrote, “Serious and humble prayer, united with mature love, will unconsciously and spontaneously manifest itself in a habitual spirit of sacrifice and concern for others that is unfailingly generous, though perhaps we may not be aware of the fact.”14
Both Merton and Kelly see a great need for being in the world more fully, rather than an urgency to build the new order through religious or political action. To choose to live in the realm of God now is to choose to live in God’s new order, which overcomes the structures of injustice as well as the experience of alienation. Kelly makes a similar observation in succinct terms when he writes, “Social concern is the dynamic Life of God at work in the world, made special and emphatic and unique, particularized in each individual or group who is sensitive and tender in the leading-strings of love.”15

CONCLUSION

Merton felt nothing could restore modern humanity, caught up in technology, depersonalizing societies, and fierce activism, except a new contemplative vision. Seeking isolation, he embarked on a 46 • 
life-transforming journey. As that journey led him further from the temptations of the world, he found himself plunged more deeply into the spiritual malaise of the world. 
In his introduction to Merton’s Contemplative Prayer, Douglas Steere reveals a surprising insight (for a Quaker) into the monastic vocation Merton followed. He points out that we live in an age of crisis, revolution, and struggle—a time that calls for the special searching and questioning that is characteristic of the monk in meditation and prayer. Continuing from that observation, he writes that “the monk searches not only his own heart: he plunges deep into the heart of that world of which he remains a part although he seems to have ‘left’ it. In reality the monk abandons the world only in order to listen more intently to the deepest and most neglected voices that proceed from its inner depth.”16
In his own way Kelly was cloistered in an academic career that was often as frustrating as it was necessary to his personal fulfillment. For all of his intellectual achievements, his uniquely contemplative style of writing suggests that his interior journey was deeper than the outward circumstances of his life would suggest, and the personal tensions it entailed were as life-changing and emotionally draining as any Merton later experienced. 
Kelly’s first-hand observation of the growing crisis in Europe marked a significant turning point in his life. Recoiling from the intensity of both fascist and communist ideologies, and from the number of people actually suffering under Hitler, he experienced deep depression. While visiting Cologne Cathedral in 1938, he felt the evil pressing him down into the very stones on the floor where he was kneeling. But then, through prayer, he felt relieved by a mystical presence that enabled him to return home—where his original sense of helplessness gave way to an outcry of passionate concern.17
Solitude is the essential condition for contemplative prayer. Yet isolation from the world, whether supported by institutional discipline or by a strong vocational drive, is only a beginning. The obstacles to being alone with God are the constant attributes of our busy and crowded existence in the modern world. Craving a deeper experience of solitude, Kelly and Merton reoriented their religious lives to resist the ambitious activism of American life and the complacency of conventional religion. They experienced the long dryness that both frustrates and nourishes longing before coming to terms with their disillusionment about the world and submitting themselves to the dark night journey of coming into intimacy with God. 
The ultimate dread of living today is to find ourselves alone, cut off from human society and its ambitions for security and progress. The religious vocation, true to its quest for spiritual integrity, is all the more pressed to transcend the ways of the world and to make a fresh commitment to the discipline of contemplative prayer. In the last article he was writing before his death, Kelly expressed the new vision vividly.
With trembling awe at the wonder that is ever wrought within us, we must humbly bear the message of the Light. Many see it from afar and long for it with all their being. Amidst all the darkness of this time the day star can arise in astounding power and overcome the darkness within and without.18

NOTES

1. Douglas Van Steere, Together in Solitude (=TS) (NY: Crossroad, 1982), p. 14.
2. Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer (=CP) (NY: Image Books, 1971), p. 19.
3. Kelly, “The Light Within,” A Testament of Devotion (London: Quaker Home Service, 1989), p. 30.
4. Kelly, Testament, p. 27.
5. Kelly, “Holy Obedience,” Testament, p. 49.
6. Merton, CP, p. 68.
7. Kelly, Testament, p. 64.
8. Merton, CP, p. 100.
9. Kelly, “The Quaker Discovery,” Testament, p. 58.
10. Merton, “The Contemplative Life,” quoted in John J. Higgins, Thomas Merton on Prayer (NY: Image Books, 1975), p. 93.
11. Kelly, “Excerpts from the Richard Cary Lecture,” in The Eternal Promise (=EP) (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1991), p. 34.
12. Kelly, “The Simplification of Life,” in Testament, p. 112.
13. Kelly, “The Eternal Now and Social Concern,” in Testament, p. 97.
14. Merton, CP, p. 74.
15. Kelly, “The Simplification of Life,” in Testament, p. 102.
16. Steere, “Intro.,” to Merton, CP, p. 23.
17. Steere, TS, p. 101.
18. Kelly, “Children of the Light,” EP, p. 162.

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Revolutionary Explosiveness | to tell the truth - thomas kelly

Revolutionary Explosiveness | to tell the truth

Revolutionary Explosiveness
25
Monday
May 2009
Posted by Michael DeFazio in Uncategorized≈ Leave a comment
Tagschurch, dallas willard, discipleship, ministry, obedience, patience, quakers, thomas kelly

testament of devotion

More from Thomas Kelly’s A Testament of Devotion . . . about what Kelly calls the “revolutionary explosiveness” of full obedience to Jesus. After quoting Meister Eckhart’s comment about how many will follow Jesus halfway but few will continue with the other half (btw, Eckhart places giving up all our possessions in the first half!), Kelly summons us, “It is just this astonishing life which is willing to follow Him the other half, sincerely to disown itself, this life which intends complete obedience, without any reservations, that I would propose to you in all humility, in all boldness, in all seriousness. I mean this literally, utterly, completely, and I mean it for you and for me – commit your lives in unreserved obedience to Him.” And then he says, in case we’ve missed that he’s not playing around, “If you don’t realize the revolutionary explosiveness of this proposal, you don’t understand what I mean.” I’m reminded of something Dallas Willard once suggested churches should put on their outdoor signs: “We are committed to training all those interested in actually obeying the things Jesus said to do” (or something like that). And I believe part of his point was that if this isn’t a true statement about what the church is doing, then we aren’t really paying attention to the Great Commission. Easier said than done, of course. The reality is that we find ourselves in a situation where most of the people we would “reach” have no idea who Jesus really is, and many of them don’t care. That’s not to say the essence of our task changes, but it does mean that we’ve got to find new virtues – patience more than any other, as well as new tactics (catechism, perhaps?). I’m happy to be part of a church that meets people “where they’re at,” since that’s the only place we can meet them; the question is how to move forward…

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Quaker service in China: Evolution amidst revolution - The Australian Friend

Quaker service in China: Evolution amidst revolution - The Australian Friend







Wuna Reilly and James Reilly, New South Wales Regional Meeting


Jamie, Wuna and Reina

The history of Quakers’ engagement in China begins, appropriately, with opposition to war. During the Second Opium War in China (1856-1860), Adam Davidson was a 24-year-old Methodist from Ireland, and a Corporal in the 12th Brigade of Britain’s Royal Artillery. Deeply disturbed by the notorious sacking of the Imperial Summer Palace in 1860, as he took sentry duty on the walls of Beijing, the ruins of the Palace still smoking in the distance, he began to wonder how he could reconcile such actions with his Christianity. This led him to pacifism, and after his return to Ireland his pacifism drew him to join the Society of Friends in 1865.

Although Davidson never returned to China, in 1886 he sent his son Robert to serve as the first Quaker missionary to China, telling him: “Go to China and as you meet the Chinese tell them you come with the Bible and not with a gun as I mistakenly did.”

Over the next few decades, a number of British and US Quakers followed Davidson’s example. They went primarily to Sichuan province in western China – laying the foundation for the first Yearly Meeting in China – Sichuan Yearly Meeting, established in 1904.

Quaker missionaries soon took up prominent roles promoting higher education in China. Robert Simkin, supported by the American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, became the principal of Union Middle School in Chengdu in 1912, and then Acting Vice-President of West China Union University in 1919. William Cadbury, supported by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and the Cadbury Fund, eventually became Superintendent of Canton (Guangzhou) Hospital, Vice-President of the Chinese Medical Association, and then Chairman of the Canton International Red Cross.

The legacy of Quaker missionaries endures in the institutions they helped establish. Chongqing Boys’ School, founded by Quakers, in 1991 reverted to its original name – Friends High School. West China Union University, co-founded by Quaker missionaries in 1910 in Chengdu, endures as the West China University of Medical Sciences.

As China descended into war following Japan’s invasion of central China in 1937, Quaker missionaries established relief programs. In 1938, Quakers established the Friends Centre in Shanghai with support from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The missionary legacy and relief programs laid the foundation for the most ambitious of all Quaker service programs in China – the Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU).

From the Nameless to the Nameless: Friends Ambulance Unit

The Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) was originally established during World War I to provide a channel of service for Conscientious Objectors (COs), mainly Quakers. It was resurrected in 1939 to again provide opportunities for COs to offer service in relief of suffering brought on by war. One of FAU’s most important programs was the China Convoy.

As Japanese armies seized control of most of China, by 1940 the only available land route into “Free China”, the part controlled by the Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-shek, was via Burma and the new Burma Road. With the support of the British Fund for the Relief of Distress in China, the FAU began transporting medical supplies from Rangoon and, after the fall of Burma, from Kunming.

Despite daunting conditions, by 1942, the FAU had established a functioning transport system. Without access to petrol, FAU trucks had been converted to run on charcoal-fuelled gas, rapeseed oil, tung oil, and even alcohol. Medical and mobile surgical teams formed to work alongside the Chinese Red Cross.

Although China’s wartime resistance to Japan included both the Nationalists and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), most Christian relief organisations refused to engage with the CCP. One of the few Western organisations prepared to work with the CCP, the FAU sent a team to serve in the Communist base area of Yan’an, facilitated by future Premier Zhou Enlai.

One estimate suggests that up to 90 per cent of the medical supplies reaching China for civilian use during the war were brought in by the FAU. After the war’s end, the FAU shifted its focus to rural rehabilitation in Henan province. By the time FAU’s China Convoy was formally disbanded in 1950, it had included 170 individuals from five countries over nine years.

When Friends Service Council and the AFSC jointly accepted the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers worldwide, they were honored for their service “from the nameless to the nameless”—an ideal embodied by the FAU in China.

After the Communist Revolution in 1949, most Westerners soon left the country, including Quaker missionaries. However, Friends continued to play an active role in Hong Kong, which remained under British rule. From the late 1940s, Hong Kong Quakers founded “rooftop schools” for children of migrants from mainland China, and later also provided relief services for refugees from Vietnam. In 1979 Hong Kong Friends Meeting founded Oxfam Hong Kong to gather relief for Cambodia. Now independent of Quakers, Oxfam Hong Kong has grown into one of the largest Oxfams in the world.

Recognising China: AFSC’s Cold War Engagement

Following the Communist Party’s 1949 victory over the Nationalists, the United States government refused to recognise the new Communist government—instead insisting to recognise only the Nationalist government on Taiwan as the government of China.


A contemporary cartoonist’s opinion of Ping Pong Diplomacy

Drawing from its history of involvement in China, AFSC urged US recognition of China and lobbied for China’s inclusion in the United Nations. At the height of the McCarthy “Red Scare” in the 1950s, AFSC published a book titled “A New China Policy,” and sponsored a series of conferences in the US calling for diplomatic recognition of China. These efforts led to the founding of the National Committee on US-China Relations, which later organised the famous Ping Pong Diplomacy delegation.

AFSC also held influential conferences with UN diplomats in Geneva and New York to discuss the PRC assumption of the China seat at the UN. After its success in 1971, AFSC led two high-level delegations to China and published a series of books aimed at broadening dialogue and facilitating exchanges between the US and China, laying the foundation for the renewal of diplomatic relations in 1979.

Renewed Engagement: AFSC Returns to China

From the 1970s, AFSC’s work in Asia shifted toward the aftermath of US-led wars in Southeast Asia, democratisation in South Korea, and protesting US military bases maintained throughout the region. It was not until 2001, when we were hired as the Quaker International Affairs Representatives (QIARs) in East Asia, that AFSC established its first office in China since 1949.


China Summer camp: Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean university students teaching local Chinese middle-school students about environmental protection.

The first program we established in China on behalf of AFSC was the “China Summer” workcamp. Since 2001, China Summer has brought young people from the US, China, and around Asia together to teach English, Chinese, environmental protection and other subjects to local children in rural Hunan province. Now in its thirteen year, China Summer has hosted hundreds of volunteers from around the world, and thousands of local Chinese children. Although it is no longer formally affiliated with AFSC or Quaker institutions, individual Quakers remain involved with the project in various ways, including as participants, administrators, and supporters. Indeed, China Summer continues to epitomise Quaker values in action through its workcamp and affiliated service programs in southern China. AFSC continues to maintain an office in Beijing and administers its North Korea program out of China. This unassuming approach of building dialogue and understanding across boundaries exemplifies the rich history of Quaker service in China.

2 Comments

Andrew Hicks on 01/12/2014 at 11:20 pm


Thanks for your great article on “Quaker Service in China”. It’s good to be in touch as I have been writing a book on the work of the Friends Ambulance Unit ‘China Convoy’, to be called A TRUE FRIEND TO CHINA. I am finalising the proofs and it will be really good to be in touch with the Quaker community in China when it comes out. On the cover will be a group photo including David Thawley whose son was much later Australia’s ambassador to the USA (or do I mean the UN). So there are connections to be made. I can be contacted on arhicks56@hotmail.com. Best wishes.Reply


Wei Li on 26/06/2020 at 1:42 am


My father graduated from the Friends High School and the Pacifism values from the school took roots, which caused him a lot of political troubles along with the other values from the school, contradicted the values pitched by the government after 1949…
it is great to find some info on the school founder here
thanks for the contributionReply





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Embodying the Words of Thomas Kelly | Western Friend

Embodying the Words of Thomas Kelly | Western Friend

Embodying the Words of Thomas Kelly

Author(s): 
Barbara Birch
Department: 
Inward Light


Some wannabe disciples of Brother Lawrence (like me) are baffled by quotes like this from a book of his teachings, The Practice of the Presence of God:

Think often on God, by day, by night, in your business and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave him not alone.

What does that mean? How? I tried praying his prayer:

O my God, since thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech thee to grant me the grace to continue in thy presence; and to this end do thou prosper me with thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.

I tried, but the prayer did not work for me. I was pretty sure I needed more specific instructions.

In January 2019, I made several random resolutions that, when put together, led me to a better understanding of how to “practice the presence” of the Divine in my life. 

First, I decided to read something short and spiritual, so I got out my old copy of A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly. 

Second, I decided to stop using disposable pens, so I got out an old fountain pen that my Dad made for me, and I bought a bottle of ink. 

Third, I decided to use the pen; instead of doing all my writing with a keyboard, I would do some by hand. Then, just about that same time, in meeting for worship, my inner guide told me to use my “gifts” to deepen my spiritual life.

I am a reader and writer by profession, and these are my gifts. I have honed those skills and technologies throughout my life, so I assimilate and internalize ideas best by reading and writing about them. I decided to practice lectio divina and scriptio divina – sacred reading and writing – because they are devotional practices that build on my gifts.

I confess that I don’t understand it because the words are descriptive and lyrical.I started reading “The Light Within,” the first section of Thomas Kelly’s book. I like that part the best, but I confess that I don’t understand it because the words are descriptive and lyrical. After reading each paragraph, I copied it out word for word into a pretty journal I had found at a thrift store. I am a compulsive buyer of unwanted journals; it felt good to open one and write in it with a fountain pen. I wrote each paragraph on a page as nicely as I could, telling myself that mistakes and smudges didn’t matter.

Reading the paragraphs occupied my eyes and brain; writing them involved my eyes, brain, arm, hands, and fingers. Somehow, the extra mind/body processing helped me understand Kelly’s lyrical words better. Inadvertently, by the end of March, 2020 – when the Covid pandemic struck with force – I had established a routine that would get me though a longer isolation than I had imagined.

I read at first for meaning, then again for a sense of the paragraph and sentence structure, and then once more for the structure and etymology of the words.During the weeks and months that I was alone in my office, lectio and scriptio divina grew more embodied as I explored ways to sink into words and meanings. To slow down, I read silently, but I “heard” the phrases and words in my head with intonation. I read at first for meaning, then again for a sense of the paragraph and sentence structure, and then once more for the structure and etymology of the words.

Soon I was also reading aloud, listening to the sounds in the syllables and words. When I was alone, I made a lot of noise by my sacred reading and listening. I read with exaggerated intonation and hand gestures, and sometimes rhythmically in chant. I didn’t exactly memorize the passages, but I got to know them very well. While I was walking aimlessly around my neighborhood, I reconstructed the meanings of the passages in my head. At times, I tried to match my steps to the
words I recollected.

At the same time, my experiences of sacred writing evolved. The fountain pen made my scrawled letters, smudges and all, look expressive on the page. I wrote the reconstructed phrases as I remembered them after my neighborhood walks. Sometimes I wrote what a sentence or paragraph meant in my own words. Sometimes I wrote what I was reminded of, or associations I had from the past. Reading and writing this way is called meditatio.

Often I imagined that I could ask Thomas Kelly a question about a passage or have a conversation with him. I wondered how a particular passage might affect my life journey going forward. If these imagined conversations led to an insight, I put that into words on the page. Ancient monks and nuns called this contemplatio, the contemplative stage of lectio divina.

I found that the words on those pages flooded my unconscious while at worship.Ultimately, I got to pages 38-39 in “The Light Within.” They are Kelly’s specific instructions to practice the presence of the Divine. After lectio, scriptio, meditatio, and contemplatio, I found that the words on those pages flooded my unconscious while at worship. Not quickly, but eventually, I experienced a glimmer of a felt sense that prayer was part of my body in my lifeworld. That was the start.

Now, when I become quiet in my mind and body, I welcome Kelly’s words into my body in what the ancient Christians called oratio. I choose one phrase as a sacred mantra to use as a focus. I center down to the quiet place beneath the words and let them sink into me. When intrusive thoughts distract my attention, my sacred words lead me back to center. As Kelly describes, “turn in humble wonder to the Light, faint though it may be.”

I sometimes feel like I am living on two levels, as Kelly suggested, carrying embodied prayer with me wherever I go, whatever I do. My practice is far from perfect, but Brother Lawrence’s words make sense to me now. “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.” ~~~

Barbara Birch is a member of Strawberry Creek Meeting in Berkeley, CA (PacYM). Besides lectio divina, her interests include the embodied spirituality of early Friends, its relevance to Quakers today, and Friendly Twelve-Step recovery.

=====

The Words of Thomas Kelly

The following paragraphs are drawn from “The Light Within,” found in Testament of Devotion, (New York: Harper Collins Publishing, 1941), 38-39, used by permission.

“How, then shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning all of our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward Him who calls in the deeps of our souls. Mental habits of inward orientation must be established. An inner, secret turning to God can be made fairly steady, after weeks and months, and years of practice and lapses and failures and returns.

“Begin now, as you read these words, as you sit in your chair, to offer your whole selves, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender to Him who is Within. “In secret ejaculations of praise, turn in humble wonder to the Light, faint though it may be. Keep contact with the outer world of sense and meanings. Here is no discipline in absent-mindedness. Walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship.

“Keep it up throughout the day. Let inward prayer be your last act before you fall asleep and the first act when you awake. The first days and weeks and months are awkward and painful, but enormously rewarding. Awkward, because it takes constant vigilance and effort and reassertions of the will, at the first level. Painful, because our lapses are so frequent, the intervals when we forget Him so long. Rewarding, because we have begun to live.

“Lapses and forgettings are so frequent. Our surroundings grow so exciting. Our occupations are so exacting. But when you catch yourself again, lose no time in self-recriminations, but breathe a silent prayer for forgiveness and begin again, just where you are. Offer this broken worship to Him and say: ‘This is what I am except Thou aid me.’ Admit no discouragement, but ever return quietly to Him and wait in his presence.”

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The Serenity Prayer and Twelve Step Recovery | Hazelden Betty Ford

The Serenity Prayer and Twelve Step Recovery | Hazelden Betty Ford



OCTOBER 15, 2018 | BY: Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
The Serenity Prayer and Twelve Step Recovery


Finding the Balance between Acceptance and Change

The AA Serenity Prayer

These simple words ring clear through the hearts and minds of Alcoholics Anonymous members across the world:

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 often used AA prayer is an excerpt from a longer prayer commonly attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr. Although its origins are a bit unclear, its impacts are not. The Serenity Prayer serves as a focal point for the very spirit of AA, anchoring its members to its quintessential teachings about surrender and acceptance. Below, we provide the full Serenity Prayer along with an examination of its history, meaning and importance so that we all might carry its lessons closely and transform common hardships into a calming surrender.


The Full Serenity Prayer

  • 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.
  • Living one day at a time;
  • Enjoying one moment at a time;
  • Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
  • Taking, as He did, this sinful world
  • As it is, not as I would have it;
  • Trusting that He will make things right
  • If I surrender to His Will;
  • So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
  • And supremely happy with Him
  • Forever and ever in the next.
  • Amen
.
AA, the Twelve Steps and the Serenity Prayer

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous have enthusiastically embraced this prayer—known as the Serenity Prayer—almost from the moment they discovered it. In fact, these 25 words are heard in most every AA meeting and widely taken as a succinct statement of a path to sanity and sobriety.

The Serenity Prayer meshes perfectly with the spirituality of AA's Twelve Steps. And, although the origin is thought to be Christian, the Serenity Prayer is applicable to your daily life regardless of religion or spiritual belief system. There are several versions of the Serenity Prayer, each with slightly different wording that support groups have adopted. The full Serenity Prayer text has stronger religious overtones.

Also there are conflicting accounts of the prayer's origin. The Serenity Prayer has been variously attributed to an ancient Sanskrit text, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi and others. Many AA members were first exposed to the prayer in 1948, when it was quoted in the Grapevine, an AA periodical. There it was credited to American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). The Serenity Prayer spread both through Niebuhr’s sermons and church groups in the 1930s and 1940s, and was later adopted and popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and other Twelve Step programs.
Living the Serenity Prayer in Recovery from Alcohol or Drug Addiction

For many, the first verse of the Serenity Prayer serves as a daily touchstone, reminding us that to achieve serenity, we must approach each moment with wisdom and courage. The Serenity Prayer accurately expresses a central problem of addiction and prescribes a timeless solution.

The prayer’s message about acceptance echoes insights from Bill W., cofounder of AA. In the book Alcoholics Anonymous (published by AA World Services), Bill described the core trait of alcoholics as self-centeredness—something he called "self-will run riot." He further described the alcoholic as "an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way." Bill's solution: "First of all, we had to quit playing God."

What blocks some alcoholics and addicts from achieving serenity is their intense desire to achieve a sense of absolute control—one that is simply not possible for human beings. This need for control has two aspects. First is an attempt to control the behavior of others, a strategy that addicts cling to despite its repeated failure. Second is the attempt to control feelings by medicating them with mood-altering chemicals. This strategy, too, is doomed to failure.

An alcoholic’s quest for absolute control can lead to misery, which may contribute to substance abuse problems. Ironically, the need to control may also be a response to the unmanageability caused by their out-of-control use of drugs. And the vicious cycle continues until the addict accepts that there will always be external circumstances that we cannot change. The prayer instead points us to examine our inner life: We cannot directly control our feelings. However, we can influence our feelings through what we can control—our thinking and our actions. By focusing on those two factors, we can attain the final quality promised by the Serenity Prayer: courage.

The Serenity Prayer is a wide door, one that's open to people of all faiths and backgrounds. It speaks wisdom to addicts and non-addicts alike. People who live this prayer discover how to strike a dynamic balance between acceptance and change. This gift is precious, and it's one that we can enjoy for a lifetime of serenity.
The prayer perfectly expresses the central problem of addiction and prescribes a timeless solution


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Twelve-step program - Wikipedia

Twelve-step program - Wikipedia

Twelve-step program

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"12 Steps" redirects here. For the song of the same name, see Cxloe.

Twelve-step programs are mutual aid organizations for the purpose of recovery from substance addictions, behavioral addictions and compulsions. Developed in the 1930s, the first twelve-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), aided its membership to overcome alcoholism.[1] Since that time dozens of other organizations have been derived from AA's approach to address problems as varied as drug addiction, compulsive gambling, sex and overeating. All twelve-step programs utilize a version of AA's suggested twelve steps first published in the 1939 book Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism.[2]

As summarized by the American Psychological Association (APA), the process involves the following:[1]

  • admitting that one cannot control one's alcoholism, addiction, or compulsion;
  • coming to believe in a Higher Power that can give strength;
  • examining past errors with the help of a sponsor (experienced member);
  • making amends for these errors;
  • learning to live a new life with a new code of behavior;
  • helping others who suffer from the same alcoholism, addictions, or compulsions.

Overview[edit]

Twelve-step methods have been adapted to address a wide range of alcoholism, substance abuse, and dependency problems. Over 200 self-help organizations—often known as fellowships—with a worldwide membership of millions—now employ twelve-step principles for recovery. Narcotics Anonymous was formed by addicts who did not relate to the specifics of alcohol dependency.[3]

Demographic preferences related to the addicts' drug of choice has led to the creation of Cocaine Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous and Marijuana Anonymous. Behavioral issues such as compulsion for or addiction to gambling, crime, food, sex, hoarding, getting into debt and work are addressed in fellowships such as Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous and Debtors Anonymous.

Auxiliary groups such as Al-Anon and Nar-Anon, for friends and family members of alcoholics and addicts, respectively, are part of a response to treating addiction as a disease that is enabled by family systems.[4] Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA or ACOA) addresses the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family. Co-Dependents Anonymous (CoDA) addresses compulsions related to relationships, referred to as codependency.

History[edit]

Further information: History of Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the first twelve-step fellowship, was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith, known to AA members as "Bill W." and "Dr. Bob", in Akron, Ohio. In 1946 they formally established the twelve traditions to help deal with the issues of how various groups could relate and function as membership grew.[5][6] The practice of remaining anonymous (using only one's first names) when interacting with the general public was published in the first edition of the AA Big Book.[7]

As AA chapters were increasing in number during the 1930s and 1940s, the guiding principles were gradually defined as the Twelve Traditions. A singleness of purpose emerged as Tradition Five: "Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers".[8] Consequently, drug addicts who do not suffer from the specifics of alcoholism involved in AA hoping for recovery technically are not welcome in "closed" meetings unless they have a desire to stop drinking alcohol.[9]

The principles of AA have been used to form many numbers of other fellowships specifically designed for those recovering from various pathologies; each emphasizes recovery from the specific malady which brought the sufferer into the fellowship.[10]

Twelve Steps[edit]

Several terms ending in "step" redirect here. For other uses, see Scale (music), Eighth Step Coffee House and Ninth Step Station.
Further information: List of Twelve Step alternate wordings

The following are the original twelve steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:[11]

  1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Where other twelve-step groups have adapted the AA steps as guiding principles, step one generally updated to reflect the focus of recovery. For example, in Overeaters Anonymous, the first step reads, "We admitted we were powerless over compulsive overeating—that our lives had become unmanageable." The third step is also sometimes altered to remove gender-specific pronouns.[12][13][14][15]

Twelve Traditions[edit]

Main article: Twelve Traditions

The Twelve Traditions accompany the Twelve Steps. The Traditions provide guidelines for group governance. They were developed in AA in order to help resolve conflicts in the areas of publicity, politics, religion, and finances.[16] Alcoholics Anonymous' Twelve Traditions are:[7]

  1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
  2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
  3. The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
  4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
  5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
  6. An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
  7. Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
  8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
  9. AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
  10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
  11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always to maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
  12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Process[edit]

In the twelve-step program, the human structure is symbolically represented in three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. The problems the groups deal with are understood to manifest themselves in each dimension. For addicts and alcoholics, the physical dimension is best described by the allergy-like bodily reaction resulting in the compulsion to continue using substances after the initial use.[17][18] The statement in the First Step that the individual is "powerless" over the substance-abuse related behavior at issue refers to the lack of control over this compulsion, which persists despite any negative consequences that may be endured as a result.[19]

The mental obsession is described as the cognitive processes that cause the individual to repeat the compulsive behavior after some period of abstinence, either knowing that the result will be an inability to stop or operating under the delusion that the result will be different. The description in the First Step of the life of the alcoholic or addict as "unmanageable" refers to the lack of choice that the mind of the addict or alcoholic affords concerning whether to drink or use again.[20] The illness of the spiritual dimension, or "spiritual malady," is considered in all twelve-step groups to be self-centeredness.[17][18] The process of working the steps is intended to replace self-centeredness with a growing moral consciousness and a willingness for self-sacrifice and unselfish constructive action.[18] In twelve-step groups, this is known as a "spiritual awakening."[21] This should not be confused with abreaction, which produces dramatic, but temporary, changes,[22] As a rule, in twelve-step fellowships, spiritual awakening occurs slowly over a period of time, although there are exceptions where members experience a sudden spiritual awakening.[23]

In accordance with the First Step, twelve-step groups emphasize self-admission by members of the problem they are recovering from. It is in this spirit that members often identify themselves along with an admission of their problem, often as "Hi, I’m [first name only], and I’m an alcoholic".[24]

Sponsorship[edit]

A sponsor is a more experienced person in recovery who guides the less-experienced aspirant ("sponsee") through the program's twelve steps. New members in twelve-step programs are encouraged to secure a relationship with at least one sponsor who both has a sponsor and has taken the twelve steps themselves.[25] Publications from twelve-step fellowships emphasize that sponsorship is a "one on one" nonhierarchical relationship of shared experiences focused on working the Twelve Steps.[26][27][28] According to Narcotics Anonymous:

Sponsors share their experience, strength, and hope with their sponsees... A sponsor's role is not that of a legal adviser, a banker, a parent, a marriage counselor, or a social worker. Nor is a sponsor a therapist offering some sort of professional advice. A sponsor is simply another addict in recovery who is willing to share his or her journey through the Twelve Steps.[29]

Sponsors and sponsees participate in activities that lead to spiritual growth. Experiences in the program are often shared by outgoing members with incoming members. This rotation of experience is often considered to have a great spiritual reward.[30] These may include practices such as literature discussion and study, meditation, and writing. Completing the program usually implies competency to guide newcomers which is often encouraged.[31] Sponsees typically do their Fifth Step, review their moral inventory written as part of the Fourth Step, with their sponsor. The Fifth Step, as well as the Ninth Step, have been compared to confession and penitence.[32] Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, noted such practices produce intrinsic modifications in the person—exonerating, redeeming and purifying them; relieves them of their burden of wrong, liberating them and promising salvation.[32][33]

The personal nature of the behavioral issues that lead to seeking help in twelve-step fellowships results in a strong relationship between sponsee and sponsor. As the relationship is based on spiritual principles, it is unique and not generally characterized as "friendship". Fundamentally, the sponsor has the single purpose of helping the sponsee recover from the behavioral problem that brought the sufferer into twelve-step work, which reflexively helps the sponsor recover.[25]

A study of sponsorship as practiced in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous found that providing direction and support to other alcoholics and addicts is associated with sustained abstinence for the sponsor, but suggested that there were few short-term benefits for the sponsee's one-year sustained abstinence rate.[34][35]

Effectiveness[edit]

See also: Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous, Effectiveness of Crystal Meth Anonymous, Effectiveness of Gamblers Anonymous, Effectiveness of Narcotics Anonymous, Effectiveness of Neurotics Anonymous, Effectiveness of Nicotine Anonymous, and Effectiveness of self-help groups for mental health

Alcoholics Anonymous is the largest of all of the twelve-step programs (from which all other twelve-step programs are derived), followed by Narcotics Anonymous[citation needed]; the majority of twelve-step members are recovering from addiction to alcohol or other drugs. The majority of twelve-step programs, however, address illnesses other than substance addiction. For example, the third-largest twelve-step program, Al-Anon, assists family members and friends of people who have alcoholism and other addictions. About twenty percent of twelve-step programs are for substance addiction recovery, the other eighty percent address a variety of problems from debt to depression.[36] It would be an error to assume the effectiveness of twelve-step methods at treating problems in one domain translates to all or to another domain,[37] therefore, readers are directed to relevant sections in each group's Wikipedia article.

The 2020 Cochrane review of Alcoholics Anonymous shows that AA results in more alcoholics being abstinent from alcohol and for longer periods of time than some other treatments, but only as well in drinks-per-day and other measures.[38][39] When comparing Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Twelve Step Facilitation to other alcohol use disorder interventions, at the 12-month follow up, randomized controlled trials show a 42% abstinent rate for AA/TSF treatments, compared to 35% abstinent using non-AA interventions.[40][41] A systematic review published in 2017 found that twelve-step programs for reducing illicit drug use are neither better nor worse than other interventions.[42]

Criticism[edit]

See also: Alcoholics Anonymous: Criticism, Gamblers Anonymous: Criticism, Narcotics Anonymous: Controversies, Overeaters Anonymous: Criticism, Self-help groups for mental health: Criticism, and Sexaholics Anonymous: Criticism

The criticisms of twelve-step groups are varied. People have attended twelve-step meetings, only to find success eluded them. Their varied success rate and the belief in a Higher Power suggested in them, are common criticisms of their universal applicability and efficacy.[43]

Confidentiality[edit]

The Twelve Traditions encourage members to practice the spiritual principle of anonymity in the public media and members are also asked to respect each other's confidentiality.[44] This is a group norm,[44] however, and not legally mandated; there are no legal consequences to discourage those attending twelve-step groups from revealing information disclosed during meetings.[45] Statutes on group therapy do not encompass those associations that lack a professional therapist or clergyman to whom confidentiality and privilege might apply. Professionals and paraprofessionals who refer patients to these groups, to avoid both civil liability and licensure problems, have been advised that they should alert their patients that, at any time, their statements made in meetings may be disclosed.[45]

Cultural identity[edit]

One review warned of detrimental iatrogenic effects of twelve-step philosophy and labeled the organizations as cults,[46] while another review asserts that these programs bore little semblance to religious cults and that the techniques used appeared beneficial to some.[47] Another study found that a twelve-step program's focus on self-admission of having a problem increases deviant stigma and strips members of their previous cultural identity, replacing it with the deviant identity.[48] Another study asserts that the prior cultural identity may not be replaced entirely, but rather members found adapted a bicultural identity.[49]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b VandenBos, Gary R. (2007). APA dictionary of psychology (1st ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-59147-380-0. OCLC 65407150.
  2. ^ Bill W. (June 2001). Alcoholics Anonymous (4th ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. ISBN 1-893007-16-2. OCLC 32014950.
  3. ^ Narcotics Anonymous (1987). "Chapter 8: We Do Recover". Narcotics Anonymous (4th ed.). Van Nuys, CA: Narcotics Anonymous World Service Office. ISBN 0-912075-02-3. OCLC 14377415.[page needed]
  4. ^ Crnkovic, A. Elaine; DelCampo, Robert L. (March 1998). "A Systems Approach to the Treatment of Chemical Addiction". Contemporary Family Therapy. Springer Science + Business Media. 20 (1): 25–36. doi:10.1023/A:1025084516633. ISSN 1573-3335. S2CID 141085303.
  5. ^ Hartigan, Francis (2001). Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson. pp. 161–162. ISBN 0-312-28391-1. OCLC 42772358.
  6. ^ "Barefoot's World". barefootsworld.net. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b "The Twelve Traditions". The A.A. Grapevine. Alcoholics Anonymous. 6 (6). November 1949. ISSN 0362-2584. OCLC 50379271.
  8. ^ Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Hazelden. February 2002. ISBN 0-916856-01-1. OCLC 13572433.[page needed]
  9. ^ "For Anyone New Coming to A.A.; For Anyone Referring People to A.A." Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved June 15, 2006.
  10. ^ Vaillant, George E. (2002). "Singleness of Purpose" (PDF). About AA: A Newsletter for Professionals (Fall/Winter).
  11. ^ Bill W. (June 2001). "Chapter 5: How It Works" (PDF). Alcoholics Anonymous (4th ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. ISBN 1-893007-16-2. OCLC 32014950.[page needed]
  12. ^ "World Service Board of Trustees Bulletin #13: Some thoughts regarding our relationship to Alcoholics Anonymous". Narcotics Anonymous World Services. February 23, 2007. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2007.
  13. ^ "NA History Chronology". January 13, 2006. Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved October 7, 2007. 1953: ... this committee met regularly ... From the beginning ... 12 Steps ... 12 Traditions ... All Steps had ‘We’
  14. ^ "The 12 Steps of Recovery". Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
  15. ^ "The Twelve Steps of Marijuana Anonymous". Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  16. ^ Bill W. (April 1946). "Our A.A. Experience Has Taught Us That". The A.A. Grapevine. Alcoholics Anonymous. 2 (11). ISSN 0362-2584. OCLC 50379271.
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b Kurtz LF, Chambon A (1987). "Comparison of self-help groups for mental health". Health & Social Work. 12 (4): 275–83. doi:10.1093/hsw/12.4.275. PMID 3679015.
  18. ^ Jump up to:a b c Ronel, Natti (2000). "From Self-Help to Professional Care: An Enhanced Application of the 12-Step Program". The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 36 (1): 108–122. doi:10.1177/0021886300361006. ISSN 1552-6879. OCLC 1783135. S2CID 144471066.
  19. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous (June 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: There Is a Solution" (PDF). Alcoholics Anonymous (4th ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. p. 21. ISBN 1893007162. OCLC 32014950. At some stage of his drinking career, he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.
  20. ^ Alcoholics Anonymous (June 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: There Is a Solution" (PDF). Alcoholics Anonymous (4th ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. p. 21. ISBN 1893007162. OCLC 32014950. These observations would be academic and pointless if [he] never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem...centers in his mind....The fact is that most alcoholics...have lost the power of choice in drink...unable, at certain times, to bring into [his] consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of a month or even a week ago. [He] is without defense against the first drink.
  21. ^ Roehe, Marcelo V. (2004). "Religious Experience in Self-Help Groups: the neurotics anonymous example". Psicologia Em Estudo (in Portuguese). 9 (3): 399–407. doi:10.1590/S1413-73722004000300008. ISSN 1413-7372.
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