Home Ask-It Basket What is the source of the OA Promise?

What is the source of the OA Promise?

2 min read
0
askit

I haven’t been able to find it in the OA Twelve and Twelve or Overeaters Anonymous, Third Edition.

The OA Promise, which begins “I put my hand in yours,” first appeared in 1968 in the booklet titled I Put My Hand in Yours. Written during a time of intense growth in the Fellowship, the booklet was essentially the first OA handbook to help people start and keep meetings going in their areas. I Put My Hand in Yours (#490/$6.00) is still available to OA members for archival and historical interest at bookstore.oa.org. The booklet was replaced by the first version of the current OA Handbook for Members, Groups, and Service Bodies in 1979.

OA’s late cofounder, Rozanne S., told a more complete story of how she came to write the OA Promise in Chapter 16 of Beyond Our Wildest Dreams.

The full text of the OA Promise can be found on the OA website. It reads, “I put my hand in yours, and together we can do what we could never do alone. No longer is there a sense of hopelessness, no longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for power and strength greater than ours, and as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams.”

The OA Promise one of the suggested meeting closings mentioned in the OA Handbook, the Suggested Meeting Format, and the OA Business Conference Policy Manual.

— Members of the Board of Trustees provide answers to these questions

  • Growth and Security

    In The Twelve Concepts of OA Service under Concept Twelve, it reads: “The spiritual founda…
  • Better Defined

    After reading about the new definitions for “abstinence” and “recovery” approved by the Wo…
  • Instant Gratification

    It was Saturday night, and I was on my own. I was driving home to have my dinner, but I wa…
Load More Related Articles
  • Low-Tech Outreach

    I am on my intergroup’s public information committee. We make flyers with a tear-off porti…
  • Available to Everyone

    Here are a few ways I carry the message to other compulsive overeaters. I print out OA’s C…
  • Radio-Active

    I was listening to a commentary about obesity on our local radio station. The commentator …
Load More By admin
  • Posting Local Podcasts

    The German Language Service Board would like to upload audio recordings of meeting speaker…
  • Connecting to Recovery

    Q. How can I feel hopeful about recovery when folks at the meetings I attend have been goi…
  • Alternative to “Abstinence”

    I object to the word “abstinence” in the OA pamphlet A Commitment to Abstinence. Alcoholic…
Load More In Ask-It Basket
Comments are closed.

Check Also

Low-Tech Outreach

I am on my intergroup’s public information committee. We make flyers with a tear-off porti…