http://bbsgsonj.webs.com/apps/documents/
http://bbsgsonj.webs.com/apps/documents/
Showing posts with label AA History-The Oxford Group Connection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AA History-The Oxford Group Connection. Show all posts
Henrietta Sieberling (Transcript)
Transcript Of Remarks
Henrietta B. Seiberling:
I would like to tell about Bob in the beginning. Bob and Ann came into the Oxford group, which, as you know, was the movement which tried to recapture the power of first Century Christianity in the modern world, and a quality of life which we must always exercise. Someone spoke to me about Bob Smith’s drinking. He didn’t think that people knew it. And I decided that the people who shared in the Oxford group had never shared very costly things to make Bob lose his pride and share what he thought would cost him a great deal. So I decided to gather together some Oxford Group people for a meeting, and that was in T. Henry Williams’ house. We met afterwards there for five or six years every Wednesday night.
Henrietta B. Seiberling:
I would like to tell about Bob in the beginning. Bob and Ann came into the Oxford group, which, as you know, was the movement which tried to recapture the power of first Century Christianity in the modern world, and a quality of life which we must always exercise. Someone spoke to me about Bob Smith’s drinking. He didn’t think that people knew it. And I decided that the people who shared in the Oxford group had never shared very costly things to make Bob lose his pride and share what he thought would cost him a great deal. So I decided to gather together some Oxford Group people for a meeting, and that was in T. Henry Williams’ house. We met afterwards there for five or six years every Wednesday night.
~~~~~The Oxford Group Connection~~~~~
(Please see bottom of page for credits and details for this article.)
This article is an effort to put together in sequence the various events that took place in the years from 1908 to 1935 which made possible the meeting in Akron, Ohio between the AA founders, Dr. Bob S. and Bill W., and which resulted in the subsequent birth of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is an assemblage of facts gleaned from the following publications:
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- AA Comes of Age
- Pass It On
- Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers
- Not God (by Ernest Kurtz)
- For Sinners Only (by A.J. Russell)
- On the Tail of a Comet (by Garth Lean)
- Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous (by Dick B.)
- The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous (by Dick B.)
Do you know any of these names? Frank Buchman--Sam Shoemaker--Rowland H.--Jim N.--Eleanor F.--Ebby T.--Shepard C.--Henrietta Seiberling--Rev. Walter Tunks--Norman S.--Russell Firestone--T. Henry & Clarace Williams?? All of these people were instrumental in a scenario that contributed to making possible that historic meeting at the Gate House of the Seiberling Estate in Akron that became the birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous. If it were not for these people, that meeting could never have taken place, and the fellowship to which we all owe our lives today might never have been born.
Where did the steps originate? In AA Comes of Age, (p.39), Bill wrote:
"Early AA got it's ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and nowhere else." (1)
We prepare to start this history with the story of Frank Buchman, the founder of the Oxford Group. You will see as we trace the paths of Dr. Bob and Bill W. in the years before they met, that the Oxford Group and the aforementioned cast of characters played a part in every twist and turn of the path that led Bill W. to Akron.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)