FELLOWSHIP

Definition of Fellowship:
Friendly association, especially with people who share one’s interests.

Synonyms of Fellowship:
Companionability, comradeship, friendship, mutual support and respect, solidarity, etc.

These notes are from recovery in AA and/or related 12 step programs. Readers are encouraged to click external links for more detail. We hope you find them helpful.

Love in fellowship.

The Importance of Fellowship
Though they may not realize it today, early AAs received a rich body of instruction concerning the body of Christ, from the Book of Acts and the many Christian materials they read. They learned the intended meaning of the fellowship of the Spirit, and how God worked with His children where two or three were gathered together. –©Dick B. | More…

You must remember that every A.A. group starts, as it should, through the efforts of a single man and his friends–a founder and his hierarchy. “But when infancy is over, the original leaders always have to make way for that democracy which springs up. –As Bill Sees It | More… (p.269)

When we reached A.A., and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was tremendously exciting. We thought the isolation problem had been solved.

But we soon discovered that, while we weren’t alone any more in a social sense, we still suffered many of the old pangs of anxious apartness. Until we had talked with complete candour of our conflicts, and had listened to someone else do the same thing, we still didn’t belong.

Step Five was the answer. It was the beginning of true kinship with man and God. –As Bill Sees It | More… (p.228)

Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past.

Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.

May God bless you and keep you — until then. (Big Book p.164) These words put a lump in my throat each time I read them.

Today I feel deep affection for the A.A. pioneers when I read this passage, realizing that it sums up all of what I believe in, and strive for, and that — with God’s blessing — the teaching is never over, I’m never on my own, and every day is brand new. –Daily Reflections | More…

A.A. fellowship is partly group therapy. It is partly spiritual fellowship. It requires a full opening up to each other of our inner most thoughts and most secret problems.

All barriers between us are swept aside. They have to be. Then we try to help each other get well.

The A.A. fellowship is based on a sincere desire to help the other person. In A.A. we can be sure of sympathy, understanding and real help. –24 Hours | More…

A.A. fellowship is partly group therapy. It is partly spiritual fellowship. It requires a full opening up to each other of our inner most thoughts and most secret problems.

All barriers between us are swept aside. They have to be. Then we try to help each other get well.

The A.A. fellowship is based on a sincere desire to help the other person. In A.A. we can be sure of sympathy, understanding and real help. –24 Hours | More…

Our drinking fellowship was a substitute one, for lack of something better. Drinking fellowship has a fatal fault, it is not based on a firm foundation.

It is based mostly on the desire to use your companions for your own pleasure, and using others is a false foundation. Drinking fellowship has been praised in song and story.

But we realize that the higher centers of our brains are dulled by alcohol and such fellowship cannot be on the highest plane. It is at best only a substitute. –24 Hours | More…

Doctors think of the A.A. fellowship as group therapy. This is a very narrow conception of the depth of the A.A. fellowship. Looking at it purely as a means of acquiring and holding sobriety, it is right as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough.

Group therapy is directed toward the help that the individual receives from it. It is essentially selfish. It is using the companionship of other alcoholics only in order to stay sober ourselves. But this is only the beginning of real A.A. fellowship. –24 Hours | More…

Clergymen speak of the spiritual fellowship of the church. This is much closer to the A.A. way than mere group therapy.

Such a fellowship is based on a common belief in God and a common effort to live a spiritual life. Love and fear cannot dwell together. By their very natures, they cannot exist side by side.

Fear is a very strong force. And therefore a weak and vacillating love can soon be routed by fear. But a strong love, a love that trusts in God, is sure eventually to conquer fear.
The only sure way to dispel fear is to have the love of God more and more in your heart and soul. –24 Hours | More…

A.A. fellowship is partly group therapy. It is partly spiritual fellowship. It requires a full opening up to each other of our inner most thoughts and most secret problems.

All barriers between us are swept aside. They have to be. Then we try to help each other get well. The A.A. fellowship is based on a sincere desire to help the other person.
In A.A. we can be sure of sympathy, understanding and real help. –24 Hours | More…

We forget that, just as we need others, they need us. We’re not the only ones who want to feel like we belong, who want to experience the warmth of friendship, who want someone to share with. If we isolate ourselves from our fellow members, we deprive them of something they need, something only we can give them: our time, our company, our true selves. Recovering addicts care for one another. What waits at the other end of the telephone is not rejection, but the love, warmth, and identification of the Fellowship –Just For Today | More…