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Why do some meetings close with the Lord's Prayer?

In short:

  • The Big Book's program text (pp. 1–164) never mentions the Lord's Prayer, and nothing in our sources say A.A. adopted it as a rule or explains where the custom began.
  • What our sources do show is that it was already the custom before the Big Book. A member's story and members' recollections describe Akron meetings in the late 1930s, including those in an Oxford Group home, closing with the Lord's Prayer, and early Cleveland meetings did the same.
  • Writing in 1957 about the early 1940s, Bill W. called it one of A.A.'s "favorites," alongside the Prayer of St. Francis, when the Serenity Prayer joined them (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • The fourth-edition stories show members experiencing it differently: one found deep meaning in it, and a Jewish member was told by his sponsor he could say something else.

What the Big Book's main text says

The first 164 pages don't name the Lord's Prayer. They suggest prayer in the member's own words, with sample prayers and the line "Thy will be done" (pp. 67, 88), and they say members who aren't in a religious body sometimes "select and memorize a few set prayers" (p. 87). The book doesn't say which prayer, if any, should open or close a meeting.

The earliest pictures of the custom

These come from members' memories and stories written down later, so they show the practice but not its origin. - Akron, 1937. "He Sold Himself Short," a story in Part I, describes the writer's first meeting in Akron in 1937, before the book: eight or nine alcoholics and their wives, no literature but religious pamphlets, and "The meeting lasted an hour and closed with the Lord's Prayer." (p. 262). - Akron, at T. Henry Williams's house. Until late 1939 the Akron members met in the home of T. Henry and Clarace Williams, who were Oxford Group members (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957; Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Wally G., an early member, remembered: "After the meeting closed with the Lord's Prayer, all the men beat it to the kitchen for coffee" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Bob E. remembered that Dr. Bob and T. Henry "teamed" the meeting, and that T. Henry, the Oxford Group host, "took care of the prayers with which the meeting was opened and closed" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). - Cleveland, from 1939. Clarence S., one of the founders of the Cleveland group, described its meetings: "We opened with an audible prayer," then a 45-minute speaker, "and we closed with the Lord's Prayer." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). - Youngstown. A member remembered an early meeting there of four people, two men and two women, who talked a little about the Oxford Group and about Dr. Bob and Bill: "They were using the Lord's Prayer." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). - Akron parties. At the New Year's Eve dance, members gathered around Dr. Bob at midnight; he would say a few words, "and they'd have the Lord's Prayer" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

So the books place the custom in the Oxford Group years in Akron and carry it into the first meetings that broke away. At T. Henry's house the closing prayer was led by the Oxford Group host, but none of the books says who started the Lord's Prayer custom or why. It would be easy to guess that it came from the Oxford Group or from the members' churches, but our sources don't say so, and this page doesn't either.

Bill W. (1957)

In A.A. Comes of Age, Bill mentions it twice. He remembers a bilingual meeting in Montreal "where I first heard the Lord's Prayer in French" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). And writing about the Serenity Prayer's spread in the early 1940s, he says it "took its place alongside our two other favorites, the Lord's Prayer and the Prayer of St. Francis" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). That shows how common it was by then; it doesn't explain the origin. (The same book prints a talk by Father Ed Dowling that mentions the Lord's Prayer, but as part of his reflection on Christianity, not about meetings: A.A. Comes of Age, 1957.)

Not everyone liked the praying

An early Ohio member, Oscar W., speaking of the 1940s, said: "Most of us in Akron didn't like all this praying," (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980) because they'd had enough of it in the Oxford Group. He named the Serenity Prayer in particular, which New York brought in. See Where did the Serenity Prayer come from in A.A.?

Members' stories today

The fourth edition's stories show the range: - In "It Might Have Been Worse," a member lists what spiritual experience meant to him, including "hearing the Lord's Prayer, which in an A.A. meeting has such great meaning" (p. 356). - In "A Drunk, Like You," a Jewish member found closing with it "the last big hurdle" (p. 406). His sponsor told him to "say something else that you like" (p. 406), and he came to separate religion from A.A.'s spiritual program (p. 406).

These are members' experiences, not program text. See Are the personal stories part of the A.A. program?

Nothing in our sources prescribes a closing prayer for meetings. On how much a group decides for itself, see Tradition Four: can GSO tell a group what to do?; on religion, Is A.A. a religious organization? The 1955 Foreword says plainly: "Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization." (p. xx).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapters 5 and 6 (pp. 1–164 searched in full) 67, 87, 88 1939
Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the Second Edition xx 1955
"He Sold Himself Short," Personal Stories Part I 262 story describes Akron in 1937; fourth edition 2001
"It Might Have Been Worse" and "A Drunk, Like You," Part II 356, 406 fourth edition, 2001
A.A. Comes of Age (Bill W.) — 1957
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers — 1980 (members' recollections)

The history books are cited by the file-page markers in our copies (f.), not printed pages.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, A.A. Comes of Age and Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers are © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.