Step 2 · Tradition 2 · Concept II
How God speaks to us
A Power greater than ourselves speaks through a group conscience, and the Conference is that conscience for the whole Fellowship.
Step 2 · Recovery
Hope
Coming to believe a greater Power can restore us
Read Step 2 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Tradition 2 · Unity
Trust
God speaks through the group conscience; leaders serve, never rule
Read Tradition 2 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Concept II · Service
Delegation
The groups entrust the Conference to speak and act for them
Read Concept II at aa.org (opens in a new tab)The Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts for World Service are copyrighted by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Read them in full at aa.org.
The thread
Step Two asks us to believe that something greater than ourselves can restore us. Tradition Two tells us where that Power is found for the group: in the collective conscience, with leaders who serve rather than govern. Concept II extends the idea worldwide: the groups have handed the Conference the job of speaking and acting as the conscience of A.A. in its world affairs. In each case the same Power speaks, through one heart, through one group, through a body of delegates.
Where it shows up
Most of us came to believe not through a thunderbolt but by watching sober people stay sober, and that quiet evidence was our first group conscience. In a home group business meeting, a loving God shows up in the discussion itself; the chairperson keeps the floor fair and lets the group, not the chair, decide. When a GSR reports back and the group adjusts its thinking, the two-way flow Bill W. hoped for is working. At the Conference each spring, delegates from every area in the U.S. and Canada gather with the trustees, directors and staff for a week, pray, discuss and vote, and the Fellowship trusts that what emerges is as close to God’s will for A.A. as we are likely to get. Hope at the kitchen table and hope in the Conference room are the same hope.