Fellowship, connection, hope
Professor Jim Lucey :: As Ireland approaches the 80th anniversary of the first AA meeting in the country, Canon Professor Jim Lucey » reflects on the role of fellowship, connection and hope in recovery from addiction. Drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist, as well as spiritual writers and the history of Alcoholics Anonymous in Ireland, he explores how recovery is sustained through humility, acceptance and our relationships with others. In a sermon delivered recently in Christchurch Cathedral, Canon Lucey considers the enduring lessons of fellowship and the importance of recognising our shared humanity in addressing addiction today.
‘Do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand…’ (Isaiah 56, 1)
My friends, believe me when I tell you that it is a joy for me to be with you today. By coming here we are sharing in a kind of fellowship, whatever our denomination, knowing that ‘Wherever two or three are gathered’ He is amongst us (Matthew 18:20). Our connecting in this way is a kind of loving, a source of joy and healing.
The importance of human fellowship, the value of connection, has been recognised by people of faith for thousands of years. Its therapeutic value has been acknowledged only recently by medical science and psychological therapy. For example, it is central to the effectiveness of AA – Alcoholics Anonymous.
This is my subject for today. I am a psychiatrist and not a theologian, but I wish to speak here about AA and Recovery in spiritual terms.
When I was preparing this piece, a good friend of mine reminded me of a book written in the late 80’s entitled ‘Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the healing of addictions’. Its author Dr Gerald May identifies the human desire for connection with God as ‘a hunger to love and be loved’. He describes this as both ‘our deepest longing and our greatest treasure’.
St Augustine says something similar in his confessions when he prays saying, “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”.
Addiction may be understood spiritually as something which enslaves the energy of desire and attaches it to other behaviours, people or things. In a spiritual sense addiction robs us of what Dr May calls our ‘God space’. For this reason Addiction has been described as ‘the most powerful psychic enemy of humanity’s desire for God.’
This description makes sense to me. We have all seen how addictive behaviours rule lives, through drink and drugs and gambling, and how even the ordinary stuff of modern life, sport and business, social media and fanaticism, is capable of ‘usurping that space in our hearts that is intended for God.’
Just imagine what life would be like if we could claim the desire for love that is the true measure of our hearts, remembering as Augustine puts it that “the measure of love is to love without measure”.
There are some in my profession who do not accept this kind of spiritual formulation of addiction, but none can deny that human fellowship, coming together and connecting with each other, has become a cornerstone of modern psychological therapeutic practice.
Those involved in Recovery can tell you about the help they give and receive by connecting with each other, with hope and integrity, meaning and empowerment. These therapeutic ideas are captured neatly in the acronym CHIME. When we CHIME together healing becomes possible.
So, this is my opportunity to bring to your attention an important anniversary for healthcare in Ireland. One which serves as both a reminder and a guide.
This year, in November 2026, we will have the 80th anniversary of the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in Ireland. Writing in the journal Addiction sociologists Shane Butler & Tony Jordan from TCD describe this history as the first experience of AA in all of Europe. It is a fascinating tale.
I have my own reasons for pride in this history. The first psychiatrist to support AA in Ireland was an early mentor of mine and one of my predecessors as Medical Director of St Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin. The ‘ever courteous and interested’ Professor Norman Moore facilitated one of the very first AA meetings which took place in Dublin in that winter of ‘46.
My hope is that this anniversary will not go unrecognised, but my personal appreciation for AA is based on more than historical interest. I have witnessed the therapeutic benefits of AA in my family and friends, colleagues and patients. Alcohol misuse disorder knows no boundary. It can affect anyone. Thankfully the benefits of AA are open to all and so I wish to celebrate these with you.
The sociologists noted that AA made relatively swift progress in Ireland, but that it did so despite powerful opposition. Faced with obstacles the AA leadership considered their options, to abandon their cause or to enter into conflict with their opponents. Instead, they decided to engage respectfully with everyone. AA’s leaders trusted in this patient approach.
They were people of faith, and so they recognised the value of ‘doing what is right’ as Isiaah puts it. They decided to persist with courage and without entering into dispute. These deeply compassionate people knew their scripture. Their roots in Christianity gave them more than a flair for politics. Through it, they understood what is meant when scripture tells us, ‘What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them…’, (Matthew 15:10-28). Perseverance is a gift of the Spirit and His Grace and Mercy ‘is for all’ (Romans 11.1-32).
Many prominent forces remained opposed to their enterprise, at least for a time, but AA skilfully engaged with both Catholic and Protestant leadership in a non-sectarian way and ultimately gained support from both Religious and Non-Religious healthcare sectors. They avoided religious dogma and steered clear of medical argument. Their faith in fellowship is an example for us all, a sign of the potential for human collaboration.
Their approach was not mere pragmatism. In truth it is central to the idea of AA and it has deep roots in Christianity. AA has never abandoned its recognition of ‘the higher power’, just as it has steadfastly refused to become divisive or combative. In AA sobriety is not just piety; it is a way of life that is open to all.
Since then AA has grown and spread to every neighbourhood, and every country and every continent in the world. The benefits and limitations of its 12-step programmes are acknowledged by all. Similar 12-step programmes have been adapted to help with other addictions and other behavioural disorders and these good effects have proved to be transferable.
There are now many secular forms of 12-step programmes and I am not making a case for the superiority of one over the other. My point is that their practise of fellowship is a witness to a different way of life. Fellowship is not the same as engagement in argumentation or seeking domination over an opponent. Fellowship is authentically humble and merciful and effective for all that.
Acknowledgement of addiction is firstly personal but then it is shared. Recovery which begins with the individual, is sustained with reference to others and thereafter supported through fellowship with them. This becomes possible through ‘acceptance’ which ultimately leads back to love.
The Theologian Richard Rohr when talking about AA explains this by saying, ‘There has to be something that you, by yourself, cannot understand, or fix, control, change, or even begin to address. This is the raw experience of “I cannot do this….and so ‘all you can do at this point is wait and ask and trust’.
Rohr continues ‘The absolute genius of the Twelve Steps is that it refuses to bless and reward any moral worthiness game or heroic willpower…the starting point and the continuing point, is not any kind of worthiness at all but, in fact, unworthiness! (As any member of AA might introduce themselves by saying “Hi! I’m Joe, and I’m an alcoholic.”) Ultimately AA succeeds in facilitating recovery ‘not by promotion but by attraction’.
Now AA is wherever people are. There are open and closed meetings nationwide and people can access them anywhere and anytime. Even through COVID AA kept meeting. The fellowship has extended and so it co- exists with other 12-step organisations like Al-Anon for Family Groups and their members also begin their journey by acknowledging their loss of control over the alcohol misuser.
These various fellowships are the foundation upon which individual and collective recovery begins. By its very nature AA ‘CHIME’s helping to restore broken connections and building new ones beyond addiction.
So, although I like to remember with pride the role that St Patrick’s Hospital played in all of this, the real achievement did not come from any institution or any organisations backing. The credit for this fellowship goes to the members of AA and from them we have many lessons to learn.
We know this. It is time to acknowledge with courage and humility the fact that our country is in the grip of addiction – not only to alcohol but also to substances like cocaine and other synthetic hallucinogens, and also to behaviours arising from the misuse of social media and from gambling.
To address these challenges we will need to rediscover the roots of our fellowship. Our first step would be to restore with humility the recognition of our common humanity. In reality, we are in this struggle together.
Battles for domination and conflicts with those in power are not the way forward. Recovery is not just about the triumph of the self. It is about the restoration of loving relationships, with us and with each other and so it requires patience and determination and acceptance.
Those in recovery understand all of this and despite the challenge they know it is the way to peace, and that is why they renew their commitment to the fellowship every day in a prayer famously attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr,
‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’
Amen.
References
Alcoholics Anonymous in Ireland: AA’s first European experience. Butler, S. and Jordan, T. (2007), Addiction, 102: 879-886.
Addiction & Grace – Love and Spirituality in the healing of addictions. Gerald G. May MD, Harper One Publications
Breathing Under Water: Spirituality And The Twelve Steps. Richard Rohr (2018), SPCK Publishing.
The Confessions of St Augustine. Harper Press.
Canon Professor Jim Lucey.
Sunday August 16th, 2026
Christchurch Cathedral Dublin, Ireland
