Each month we focus on the Step, Tradition, and Concept of the month, and provide a quote from Bill W. This is a quick and easy way to learn about these important pillars of the program.
Step 2
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
When we encountered A.A. , the fallacy of our defiance was revealed. At no time had we asked what God’s will was for us; instead we had been telling Him what it ought to be.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 31
Tradition 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.
We believe that every A.A. group has a conscience. It is the collective conscience of its own membership. Trial and error produces group experience, and out of corrected experience comes custom.
Language of the Heart, p. 78
Concept 2
The General Service Conference of AA has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole society.
The group conscience of A.A. could not be heard unless a properly chosen Conference were fully trusted to speak for it respecting most matters of world service. Hence the principle of amply delegated authority and responsibility to “trusted servants” must be implicit from the top to the bottom of our active structure of service.
Twelve Concepts for World Service, p. 8
