july 2017 ourprimarypurpose - alcoholics...

OURPRIMARYPURPOSESTORIES, NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM OUR FELLOWSHIP IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

Finding GracePAGE 4

Ottawa Area Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous July 2017

3

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY PAGE 9

ARCHIVES CORNER PAGE 7

July 2017 | Our Primary Purpose | Ottawa, Canada

OTTAWA GENERAL SERVICE DISTRICTS AND COMMITTEESDistrict 54 - Ottawa East (Bartosz W) M [email protected]

District 58 - Ottawa Centre (Michel D) M [email protected]

District 62 - Ottawa West (Mike B) M [email protected]

Cooperation with Professionals (Karl B) M [email protected]

Public Information / Media Contact (Karl B) M [email protected]

Corrections Facilities and Treatment (Kevin A) M [email protected]

Archives (Bruce C) M [email protected]

LM CONTACTS OTTAWA AREA INTERGROUP

Chair (Jean F) M [email protected]

Vice-Chair (Sandy K) M [email protected]

Secretary (Anne D) M [email protected]

Treasurer (Steve C) M [email protected]

Website and Email (Jason M) M [email protected]

Telephone Answering (Mickey R) M [email protected]

Newsletter (Rick B) M [email protected]

Literature (Chris J) M [email protected]

12 Step Coordinator (Carolyn O) M [email protected]

Fall Conference (Harry B) M [email protected]

OTTAWA INTERGROUP OFFICE211 Bronson Avenue, Suite 108

Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6H5Open for Literature Sales

Mon - Fri 10:00 am - 4:00 pm(Subject to volunteer availability—

Call in advance)

GENERAL INFORMATIONTelephone: 613.237.6000

10 am - 10 pm, 7 days a weekEmail: [email protected]

NEWSLETTER [email protected]

Article submission deadline is last day of previous month

for following month

INSIDEMH

SERVICE CALENDAR ....................................................... 3FINDING GRACE .............................................................4-5SOME THOUGHTS ON GRACE ....................................... 6ARCHIVES CORNER, FOUR PILLARS .............................7GROUP ANNOUCEMENTS .............................................. 8RESPONSIBILITY ............................................................... 9GREETING CARD CONTEST ........................................ 10-11FALL CONFERENCE .......................................................... 12

Ottawa Area Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous

"Our Primary Purpose" publishes articles that reflect the full diversity of experience and opinion found within the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. In determining content, the editor relies on the principles of the Twelve Traditions. "Our Primary Purpose" values the shared experience of individual AA members working the AA program and applying the principles of the Twelve Steps. Seeking neither to gloss over difficult issues nor to present such issues in a harmful or contentious manner, "Our Primary Purpose" tries to embody the widest possible view of the AA Fellowship.

The editor of "Our Primary Purpose" reserves the right to accept or reject material for publication, based on the AA traditions. (We note that this policy is consistent with that of the AA Grapevine.)

Articles are not intended to be statements of AA policy, nor does publication of any article constitute endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous or Ottawa Area Intergroup. Submissions are always welcome.

EDITOR'S STATEMENT

SERVICECALENDAROTTAWA INTEGROUP MONTHLY MEETING ..............................................................................................Second Wednesday (7:00 pm)(Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue - Mac Hall)

DISTRICT 54 MEETING ................................................................................................................................................ First Thursday (7:30 pm) (Overbrook Community Centre, 33 Quill Street)

DISTRICT 58 MEETING ........................................................................................................................................... Second Monday (7:00 pm)(Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue - Room 106)

DISTRICT 62 MEETING ........................................................................................................................................... Second Monday (7:30 pm) (All Saints Church, 347 Richmond Road - rear entrance)

CORRECTIONS FACILITIES AND TREATMENT .................................................................................................. Fourth Tuesday (6:30 pm)(Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue - Room 106)

PUBLIC INFORMATION (SEPTEMBER MEETING WAS SEP 13) ........................................................................Third Monday (6:30 pm)(Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue - Room 108)

COOPERATION WITH PROFESSIONALS .................................................................................................................Third Monday (6:30 pm)(Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue - Room 108)

OTTAWA ARCHIVES ............................................................................................................................................... Third Wednesday (7:00 pm)(Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue - Room 108)

CANADATHON COMMITTEE ................................................................................................................................Specific Sundays (1:00 pm) (Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue - Check whiteboard for room location)

May 21, June 11, June 25

No matter how much sobriety you have, find out how you can help and be a part of the greater whole. All AA members are welcome to attend any of the following committees:


I was born and raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, went to Catholic School for 2 years, Catholic after-school education for many years, and went to mass every Sunday and holiday as a child. So I must have said the Hail Mary thousands of times. Yet somehow I never knew what the word "grace" meant. In fact, I didn't learn or even think to ask until I came into the rooms of AA, where I heard the word tossed about on a number of occasions.

The word "grace" means an undeserved gift from God. Is there anyone more in need of grace than a sick alcoholic trying to get better? When I think back to what a wreck I was when I walked into these rooms, I realize I was in desperate need of something very much like grace.

But here's plot twist #1. I don't believe in God. I bear no ill will against the devoutly religious or those who call their higher power God, indeed I would stand with them for their right to believe as they do. But I’ve never been able to reconcile such beliefs with the world I see.

And here’s plot twist #2. I do believe in grace. I believe in it because I’ve lived it.

When I came into the rooms of AA, I was crushed, without any hope for the future or belief that things could ever get better. But

I soon sensed that the solution was all around me as I listened to the stories of other alcoholics and heard of their recoveries. So I listened and I learned and I did what was suggested, and slowly but surely I got better.

As time proceeded, I also noted tiny, wonderful things happening. I found myself looking forward to things, when not long before everything seemed pointless and miserable. I’d be looking forward to seeing a movie with my wife or having a coffee with my new AA friends or just seeing them at a meeting. I found myself smiling when not long before, everything seemed so dismal. (I’m pretty sure that back in my boozing days, if I ever had put on a meaningful smile, no one would have recognized me. It would have been the perfect disguise.)

I remember sitting on my porch one rainy afternoon in early sobriety, watching the rain as it fell on our garden and suddenly realizing that my mind wasn’t hurtling loudly through my lengthy list of resentments. I was at peace and what a wonderful feeling this was. Also, in early sobriety, I remember putting on one of my favorite albums, John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things, and thinking that this music had never sounded so good. I wondered if someone had secretly replaced my stereo with a high-end model. But then I realized that for some time, music had sounded better, paintings had captured my attention in a way that they never had, movies were more entertaining. It seemed my senses were heightened and my ability to appreciate the things around me was as high as it’s ever been.

FINDING GRACEBY THE EDITOR

We have learned that the satisfaction of instincts cannot be the sole aim of our lives.

-Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions


Do these things deserve to be called “grace”? It seems to me they do, at least to the extent that I understand how others describe it. So it seems I am living a bit of a contradiction. I could quote a poet and end the column here:

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.

But I don’t think there actually is a contradiction here. I realized this when watching a movie (There is a video clip of this scene on Youtube. It’s highly recommended.) and hearing this quote:

The nuns taught us that there are two ways to go through life, the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow.

So begins a monologue delivered by Jessica Chastain in the Terrence Malick movie The Tree Of Life. As Tavener’s Funeral Canticle plays in the background, she describes the way of grace as:

Grace doesn’t try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.

She then goes on to describe the way of nature:

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it, and love is shining through all things.

I can think of no better description of the path the recovering addict is on as we work the program of Alcoholics Anonymous than as trying to attain the way of grace after spending our whole drunken lives wallowing in the way of nature, insisting that everything is about us and our own shallow pleasures. The phrase “finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it” felt like it had been written about me.

When we walk into the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, when we read the literature, when we work the steps, when we help the suffering alcoholic, we are choosing to live the way of grace, and I believe all the good that I’ve experienced is a result of that choice.

I left off the last line from the Tree Of Life monologue, as it’s a great way to end this column:

They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end.

Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the

best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

-Stephen King


Some Thoughts About Grace

Grace is unearned love--the love that goes before, that greets us on the way. It's the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have

discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you. Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others

who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there.

-Anne Lamott

Give up to grace.The ocean takes care of each wave till it gets to shore.

You need more help than you know.

- Jalaluddin Rumi

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.

- Frederick Buechner

The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it.

-Herman Hesse

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve.

You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.

- Flannery O'Connor

To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad.

-Eckhart Tolle

Grace has a grand laughter in it.

-Marilynne Robinson


“Take The Message from The Past into The Future”, is Archives' motto in presenting histories of various Groups/Conferences in the Ottawa area over the next few months. Last month, on the first Saturday in June, the Vanier Roundup celebrated its 35th Annual. How and why did it get started?

A brief history of The Vanier Roundup as told to Archives by John W.

The Vanier Roundup celebrated this year, 2017, its 35th continuous anniversary.

The year was 1982, when members of the Hand in Hand Group had the general understanding that the local conferences are too expensive for the ordinary member, that conferences registration fees ought to be less.

Hand in Hand members decided to take this task into their own hands and approached Vanier City Hall staff, that they also like to

rent the facilities for an A.A. Roundup-day, which was granted. The rent charged took into consideration the social affect/concerns of A.A. in the community. The agreed upon fee was $ 900 for the day, which included the entire facility.

The Roundup registration fee decided upon was $10, which is still in effect today. In the early years, dinner was prepared in the onsite kitchen by members. Nowadays it's more of a "potluck". The Roundup-day, initially, was a family day with activities for children.

The R-Day included, then as now, participation by A.A.'s sister fellowships, Al-Anon and Alateen. The Vanier Roundup is also, from its beginning, the only bilingual day conference in the combined Ottawa GS Districts 54, 58 & 62.

The Roundup was slated for the first Saturday in June, to not interfere with the Springathon and occurred outside the realm of Intergroup. What to do with possible surplus? Counsel was given by Bob E. Because the Roundup is in District 54, the beneficiary of a surplus, after a prudent reserve, should be District 54. So said, so done. Beneficiaries, besides D- 54, now include also Intergroup, French GS & GSO.

In more recent time, the Roundup is a well accepted, respected and looked forward to event in the local A.A. landscape; too, is supported now by generous donations from, the Freedom Group, Hand in Hand, The Early Birds, Happy Nooners, Beacon Hill, Easy Does It, 12 & 12 Monday Night and seed money from District 54.

BY THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE

ARCHIVES

CORNER

We lost several longtimers over the course of a few weeks. All had been sober for decades. All of them showed me how the program works. They showed me through their actions, not merely their words. They were active in their groups, they shared their experiences, and they sponsored people.

Doug was a mainstay of the Friday Night Discussion group. Every week he would take part in the steps study and tell us how he had worked that night’s particular step in his life. When my wife and I decided to take a visit to Iceland, Doug, who had been to the island nation several times, provided us with reams of information. Doug and his wife Judy, who is also in the program, showed us the true friendship that develops among members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Father David was probably the most noticeable member of Lunch With Bill. An Anglican priest, David used to show up wearing his roman collar and black suit. He helped many of us bridge the spirituality problems that bedeviled us. He was equally adept at

quoting Bill Wilson and Saint Paul. He often helped explain biblical references that had inspired Bill when he was writing the Big Book and other AA literature. When I told him a Catholic priest once told me that he did not truly understand spirituality until he sobered up in Alcoholics Anonymous, David nodded as if this was the most obvious observation in the world.

You would rarely attend a meeting of Uptown without running into Terry. For more than 40 years he was a regular presence in the rooms. He taught me about sponsorship. Although he wasn’t my sponsor, he did help many friends of mine. Seeing the way he helped them, sometimes offering blunt advice, guided the way I work with newcomers who seek my assistance.

By the end of his life, Ron was a regular at Early Birds. But his career had taken him to various parts of the world and he had been active in AA throughout the world. His service work in Asia garnered him the nickname Hong Kong Ron. Ron attended many groups throughout Ottawa after he retired here. His wife Betty worked just as hard for Al Anon. He guided newcomers through the literature and shared his story to any speaker meeting that asked him.

It is now up to the rest of us carry their legacy forward for the newcomers who have yet to enter our rooms.

FOUR PILLARS OF OTTAWA AA BY PAUL P.


Ottawa Area Intergroup Website SurveyOttawa Area Intergroup has formed an ad-hoc website committee to review and refresh

www.ottawaaa.org. As part of this process, we are requesting feedback from our local fellowship.

As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, your input is important.

Please visit the following weblink to complete our survey of 12 questions to help guide our committee in

meeting the needs of our members and those seeking our help.

http://survey.ottawaaa.org

• The Stepping Ahead Group, which meets Tuesday night at 8:30 will be having our meeting at another location for July and August due to renovations at its regular site.

Temporary location is 1485 Duford Street, Queenswood Heights Community Hall, Ottawa.

• The Hub Group will temporarily be meeting at a new location. For the period July 6 2017 to August 24 2017.

The new location is Aquaview Community Hall, 318 Aquaview Drive, Orleans.

GROUP ANNOUNCEMENTS

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I

think I have ended up where I needed to be.

-Douglas Adams


In the souvenir book for the 1965 Toronto International Convention, Dr. Jack Norris wrote, in commenting on the adoption of the Responsibility Pledge:

“…We must remember that AA will continue strong only so long as each of us freely and happily gives it away to another person, only as each of us takes our fair share of responsibility for sponsorship of those who still suffer, for the growth and integrity of our Group, for our Intergroup activities, and for AA as a whole. It is in taking responsibility that real freedom and the enduring satisfactions of life are found. AA has given us the power to choose – to drink or not to drink – and in doing so has given us the freedom to be responsible for ourselves. As we become responsible for ourselves, we are free to be responsible for our share in AA, and unless we happily accept this responsibility we lose AA. Strange, isn’t it?”

The Responsibility Pledge is recited at the closing of many meetings. When recited so often it can become routine and the significance of its meaning can be lost. The statement of the Pledge has taken on a new meaning for me. It is no longer repetitive and has taken on a new significance.

A year ago I attended an AA meeting in southern Thailand. I was on holiday and made the decision to stay in that particular area because I knew there was a meeting, once a week. On the day of the meeting I had made a commitment to have dinner with someone I had met, who was returning home to England the following day. At the last moment I called this person to see if we could delay dinner. I remembered it was the meeting day and although I did not feel I needed a meeting, I just wanted to attend and the dinner engagement was of lesser importance.

I went to the meeting location and as the time approached there was nobody else attending. At the last moment another member arrived. He was an ex-pat, originally from the U.S., now making his home in the area. During the next hour he talked about his struggle with alcohol and how he was so relieved when someone showed up at the meeting. He related how for several months, every Tuesday evening, he showed and was left to bide his time, alone. He told me how at some points in the previous two years he was so desperate for a meeting that he would fly to Bangkok and immerse himself for a couple of days in AA meetings.

The town was not of insignificant size. It welcomes more than a million tourists a year. During the peak season, I was told, there could be as many as 10 members attend a meeting, generally from the States, Europe or Australia. According to my new friend, members attended for a variety of reasons. Many had commented that they had been travelling for an extended period and felt they ‘just need a meeting’. Others, he felt, just wanted the local scoop on places to see or where to stay. Some could barely speak English, but were thankful to be able to attend. He frankly didn’t care, he was just happy they showed up.

This year on my return to Thailand I again attended the meeting, not because I felt ‘I needed a meeting’, nor to get tourist information. I felt a responsibility. I arrived early and again there was no one to greet me. Again, just before the meeting time, a motor bike arrived and I met the member, who had been sober for less than 6 months. His wife had a two year work assignment and they had moved from South Africa a month after he had attended his first meeting. He had agreed to the move, he told me, because he had confirmed in advance there were meetings in the area. The weekly meeting was his lifeline to AA. Being at home with his son, while his wife worked, the weekly meeting was a highlight. He told me how on many occasions he would show up, set up the chairs, always hoping someone else would fill at least one of them. More than once nobody did and he would stay there for the hour, reading the Big Book.

Reflecting on my experiences from Thailand I remembered an experience that happened roughly 10 years ago, as I was travelling to B.C., via the States. I was in North Dakota and having stopped for the night in an unplanned location, I checked the internet to see if there was a meeting. I got directions and arrived at a discussion meeting. Nothing exceptional, except that after the meeting a member thanked me for coming, telling me that visitors are a welcome reprieve from the repetition of the old timers recollections of the same old stories, meeting after meeting.

In the comfort of Ottawa, with daily meetings and multiple venues, I can become complacent about this essential feature of Alcoholics Anonymous. There is that anonymous member who takes time to set up, put the coffee on, arrange the meeting and at the end, turns the lights off. I can choose to breeze in, stay an hour, contribute an offering during the collection of the 7th Tradition and consider that I am meeting my responsibility.

For my part I have always enjoyed being an active member of my home group. With one exception over the past number of years I have never felt it to be an imposition to participate. I’m not sure that I ever gave it much thought. It was just my turn or that I was available. With the benefit of time and experiences, I have reflected on what the Responsibility Pledge says and what it means. It has been worthwhile and it may have merit for others. So the next time, at the end of the meeting, perhaps take a moment and reflect not only on the words, but what it says to you. It is a powerful message. If members before me had not taken it seriously, perhaps I would not be here today to recite it myself.

TAKING MY RESPONSIBILITY SERIOUSLYBY DAN M.

OTTAWA AREA INTERGROUP “GREETING CARD CONTEST” SUGGESTIONS AND REGULATIONS

The “Greeting Card Contest” is sponsored by the Ottawa Area Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous, and

is in no way sponsored by, endorsed by, administered by, or associated with the General Service Office

of Alcoholics Anonymous (GSO).

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE

The “Greeting Card Contest” is open to all members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Ottawa Area Intergroup

Board Members, employees, as well as the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings, and children) of

board members or employees, are not eligible to enter.

WHAT TO ENTER

Pick a theme below, create a greeting card that speaks to that theme and submit it. You can submit as

many cards as you like, but each card can only be submitted against one theme:

1. Birthday (AA)

2. Steps & Traditions

3. Slogans

4. Sympathy

5. Prayer & Meditation

6. Thank You

Entries may originate in any format – including, but not limited to digital files, – so long as they are

submitted electronically in .pdf format.

Entries may include captions as well, and not contain any copyright materials.

HOW TO ENTER

All entries must be submitted to Intergroup in .pdf format to [email protected] and include the name

and email address of the person and/or group submitting the entry and clearly state the category, or

categories, for which each entry is being submitted.

VOTING

All entries will be displayed for viewing in the hospitality suite at the 2017 Eastern-Ontario Regional Fall

Conference. Ballots will be made available for voting at the conference and must be dropped in the

ballot box provided, no later than 3:00 pm. Saturday, October 21st, 2017.

Voting will be open to all AA Members attending the conference. When voting, members will be asked

to consider the overall impact and relevance of each card to carry the spirit of AA’s 12-Step message of

recovery, under the category for which it was submitted.

WINNERS

Winners will be announced at the Eastern-Ontario Regional Fall Conference on Sunday October 22nd,

2017.

First Place winners will be given a full set of the 2017 Eastern-Ontario Regional Fall Conference event

CD’s.

Second and Third Place winners will be given two of the latest publications from The Grapevine.

ENTRY PERIOD

Entries must be received no later than October 6th, 2017 11:59 p.m. EST.

ELIGIBILITY

By submitting an entry, entrants certify that their participation in this “Greeting Card Contest” is not

illegal, or in violation of any law, regulation, treaty or administrative act, and that the laws of their

governing jurisdiction of residence at the time of entry, do not prohibit or restrict the receipt of any

gift(s) of thanks under this “Greeting Card Contest”.

YOUR RIGHTS

If you submit an entry to the “Greeting Card Contest” you grant the Ottawa Area Intergroup of

Alcoholics Anonymous a royalty-free, non-exclusive right for the express purpose of raising money to

help carry the AA message.

Last names will be held in strictest of confidence in accordance with AA’s tradition of anonymity.

mailto:[email protected]

Save this date!66th Eastern Ontario

Fall ConferenceOctober 20th – 22nd ,

2017at

Hellenic Meeting & ReceptionCentre,

1315 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa,ON K2C 1N2

All we need is the keyDiscussion meetings, panels, banquet and dance

Info: [email protected]

july 2017 ourprimarypurpose - alcoholics...

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