But there are also some differences, and they can be puzzling. I was somewhat baffled when I went to my first AA meeting in England, after having been in recovery for two years in America.
There on the wall were Twelve Steps, clearly printed in large type so that everyone could read it.
There too were the familiar slogans: H-A-L-T; Live and Let Live; Easy Does It, and so on.
There was a table spread with AA literature, including the Big Book, which I love.
Just as in Atlanta, where I used to live, I was greeted in Bournemouth by friendly members, offered a cup of tea (in Atlanta it had been coffee, but tea tends to be served more frequently in England), and a plate of biscuits.
People chatted, greeted friends, welcomed strangers like me, and then sat down in a large circle when
the officers took their places.
And then came the first difference. I expected we'd open the meeting with the Serenity Prayer, as we'd always done in my Atlanta home group - and in other Atlanta AA groups, too.
But no, in England the meeting began with a reading from the Preamble, followed by the Promises, and then by some notices.
And this threw me. Because for me, the overarching principle of AA, the factor which drew me to it at first and kept me a faithful member, was the presence of God. And what I didn't know, but soon realized, was that in England people "don't do God" - at least, not all that much, and very rarely in public. Even in AA.
The rest of the English meetings proceeded in just the same way as AA meetings everywhere. There's usually a share by a guest speaker, sometimes a session of Big Book studies, and always contributions, or shares, from anyone in the room who wants to speak.
But at the end, another difference, small but telling: in England, that was when we said the Serenity Prayer and closed the meeting.
In America, however, meetings had ended with the Lord's Prayer. We'd already said the Serenity Prayer, so each AA meeting was bracketed with prayers at opening and closing. The ending, the loud and happy recital of the "Our Father" was a part of the meeting I particularly liked. I'd recently found my way back to God, and I appreciated the way that, in the USA, the God of our understanding was kept strongly in the forefront at AA.
At my American home meeting, a regular member who happened to be a Methodist minister would stand up at the close, hold out his arms, and call out - "Whose Father?"
And we all stood up, held hands, and called back, "Our Father!" And then followed with the rest of the familiar, well-loved prayer, said by everyone present, even those who claimed to be agnostics. It is such a well-known prayer to Christians of all denominations that everyone knew it by heart, and it gave the meeting a rousing finale. We walked outside feeling energized, refreshed, and recharged.
But in England, that simply didn't happen.
Why not? I've often pondered that question. And it seems to me that it reflects a profound and troubling difference in European, especially British, society, as compared to the USA - it exemplifies our post-modern religious apathy, our refusal to think about God, our desire to push Him into the background, even at AA meetings.
When it comes to thinking about God, the situation is really bad here in England, and, I think, throughout Europe.
We've simply cut Him out of our daily discourse and we don't even give Him much of a place at Twelve Step meetings, where most of all we would expect to find religion and spirituality honored rather than shoved into the background.
When the EU constitution was being drafted, the then-Pope, John Paul II (now Saint John Paul II), implored the politicians to make at least some reference to Christianity. Without it, as he rightly said, Europe as a political entity would never have existed. It was the Roman Empire, then the Holy Roman Empire, and then the various converted little states and principalities that eventually moved towards creating the idea of Europe, a larger, overriding category that included all these minor and major Christian powers and bound them together in common belief.
But no, the European politicos would have none of it. Democracy was highlighted, God left out.
In England today, Christianity has fallen into such disfavor that public servants or officials dare not wear a cross or even display one in their car. Nurses have been disciplined for doing so, and a council official lost his job because he kept his Palm Sunday cross on the dashboard of his van. Public prayers, even though ecumenical and inclusive and once the accepted way of opening council meetings, are now largely abandoned, and even in schools there is no guarantee of a public morning assembly with prayers, hymns, and readings, such as we always had 50 years ago.
Such a Christian background gave people a standard to live up to. Honored more often in the breach than in the observance, it nevertheless offered a common ideal towards which we were encouraged to strive. Society as a whole was permeated by Christian belief. Our laws, our festivals, our school and academic year, our government - everything reflected Christianity.
But then, in the 1970s, my generation of students graduated and took up jobs in the media, in politics and in education. Formed by the prevalent Marxist philosophy of our undergraduate days, we were - most of us - very left-wing and idealistic. We thought naively that if we could only educate children to be unselfish, change the laws of the land to allow for more latitude as to marriage and family, and encourage everyone to "do their own thing" through the print and broadcast media, we would achieve some kind of semi-socialist Utopia. God was, we declared, irrelevant. We'd do much better without Him.
Of course, we didn't.
What happened instead was that ever since then we have forced the Judaeo-Christian religious ethos into the corner and ignored it as much as possible.
Whereas, until the 1960s, Christianity was the ideal, today we have an entire generation of intelligentsia devoted to secular, socialist ideology in which there is no place for God. Only Catholics, some Baptists and Orthodox Christians now go to church on a regular basis. The good old Church of England, once the standard-bearer for social ideals, has become in many places an embodiment of the left-liberal ideology that now takes the place of real spirituality.
The reigning monarch has been Head of the Church in England since Henry VIII, but now, the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, has said that he wants to be "head of faith", or something similar, instead. Whatever that means.
There are still many devout Anglicans who deplore the loss of the public religious standard, and who practice their own religion with devotion and love. They are the backbone of society, Good Householders par excellence.
But generally, God has been so neglected in modern day England that even in AA He no longer holds the centre stage.
Blasphemy and four letter words have become too common at many AA meetings, and members talk of their inability to believe in God with defiance rather than humility.
Because AA was and remains a basically Christian programme, though broadminded enough to be suitable for people of any religion or none, I don't think the religious element will ever be entirely banished. If it ever is, God help the recovering alcoholic.
For all of us, whether we know it or not, who are recovering from addiction are wholly dependent on God for our spiritual progress - indeed, for our very lives. Only His power can keep us sober, and if we try to shut it out of our consciousness we will lose our sobriety, and chaos will again take over our lives.
As the Big Book says, we have a daily reprieve from alcoholism that is dependent on our maintaining a fit spiritual condition.
And we can't do that without God.
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