AA Grapevine Readers Respond to "Is AA Just for Christians?" Published in the October 2003 Issue

The choice of prayers at the end of meetings is a group decision, not an AA policy or recommendation. Saying that a group's decision to use the Lord's Prayer is an AA endorsement of Christianity is almost like saying a group's bad coffee is a requirement of AA as a whole. AA, as a whole, neither endorses nor opposes the Lord's Prayer; but the group, being autonomous, may choose to use the prayer or any other to close its meetings in a spiritual way. It is important to understand the practice of the Fourth Tradition: "Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole."