| SwEnglish Group History |
The SwEnglish Group of Stockholm was founded in April 2009 and was the first bi-lingual A.A. meeting in Sweden. As far as we know, this was the first official bi-lingual meeting in Europe, though it is hard to say for sure. Gratefully, AAs have reported that our bi-lingual format has been an inspiration for other multilanguage meetings (typically the local national language, plus English) in countries around the world, including Lithuania, Iceland, Germany, and China!
The idea of having bi-lingual meetings was to start more English-speaking meetings in Stockholm and to include the Swedish-speaking experience, strength and hope. We felt this was truly embracing AA's legacy of unity. In 2009 the International Group, the first English-speaking group in Sweden, which had been around for many years, had meetings only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday night. Some members of that group joined together with a number of AA's from Swedish-speaking groups to begin meetings on days when no other English-speaking meeting was available. Three meetings were started that inaugural week: Thursdays "Men's Meeting" two speakers, one sharing in English, the other in Swedish, on the topics of their choosing, and sharing; Sundays "Two-Speaker AA Workshop" with an opening speaker and a main speaker, rotating each week which was Swedish and which was English, with Q&A after the main speaker; and Tuesdays "Language of the Heart" reading this book, a collection of Bill W.'s writing for the AA Grapevine, and sharing. (After the Tuesday meeting finished reading Language of the Heart they decided to change the name of the meeting to what it is currently known as, the "Book Club" meeting, and read through the library of AA conference approved literature. In the years since the meeting began the group has read: Language of the Heart, Alcoholics Anonymous the original manuscript and the current edition, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, AA Comes of Age, Came to Believe, The Twelve Concepts of World Service, Living Sober and Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers. After each book is finished, the group keeps them as a loaner library to let other AA groups or individuals borrow them for their own use.) Just one month later a fourth meeting was added, the Friday late-night "Rock 'n Roll Young People's" meeting with two short speakers, one sharing in English, the other in Swedish, and open sharing. The theme was always "We are NOT a glum lot" and the meeting was followed by fun and fellowship. For nearly two years the Friday night meeting was followed by a disco with DJ or movie night, or cards, or mafia, or games... In the last year, since the group move, fellowship has remained a part of the meeting, but we go out from the locale. The original name of this meeting was the "Lighten the #@!!% Up! Young People's Meeting" but the English-speaking meeting list website for Europe refused to list a meeting with swearing symbols in the name, so they would only list "Lighten Up!" until the SwEnglish Group's next group conscience when the meeting was giving its current "Rock 'n Roll" name. A SwEnglish Women's meeting was started on Thursday nights, same night as the Men's Meeting, about six months later at a different location, giving women an English-speaking meeting. Both the SwEnglish Men's Meeting and the Women's Meeting were the first gender-specific English-speaking meetings in Sweden. Due to the pandemic, the women's meeting has moved online. See our online meeting page for more information. In the summer of 2011 two more open meetings were added, one Saturday morning and one Sunday night, to the SwEnglish Group schedule. At the Saturday morning "Kick-Ass Big Book Ninjas" meeting the big book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is read side-by-side, sentence-by-sentence with the Swedish language big book Anonyma Alkoholister. This format allows everyone to read the book together, in their native language, and to discuss the meaning of the text and the differences in the translation. This meeting is also the first of the SwEnglish Group to have people take part remotely via intenet. The Sunday evening "Spiritual Book Club" meeting was started by the youngest members of the SwEnglish Group, worth mentioning only because it is often assumed the youngest alcoholics are the most wary of discussing anything spiritual in nature. This meeting reads spiritual literature that, while not AA conference approved, is a part of the history of our fellowship. The first book was Sermon on the Mount by Emmett Fox, also known as 'the big book before the big book' because of the AA co-founders and early members using it as a source of understanding and developing a spiritual solution before our basic text Alcoholics Anonymous could be written and published four years later. This meeting follows the recommendation from Chapter 6 of our big book, "There are many helpful books also. Suggestions of these may be obtained from one's priest, minister or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they have to offer." Swedish-speaking members of the SwEnglish Group have also joined with the founders of the monthly Haga prison meeting, sharing their experience, strength and hope as they work to start an English-speaking, or bi-lingual SwEnglish meeting, at the local jail in Stockholm. The idea to do this service came about after a visit to the English-speaking group in Oslo, Norway where one member learned about the number of international prisoners in jails and institutions. Another unique meeting is a floating AA meeting that members of the SwEnglish Group take to outside venues when traveling visitors are unable to make an AA meeting. In addition to sharing feedback on the translation of the big book with the national Literature Committee, the SwEnglish Group is also working with the Public Information Committee to develop a Young People's video project inspired by such projects at AA World Services. The SwEnglish Group is an active participant in AA's service structure in both Sweden and the Continental European Region, and was one of the founding members of the Nordic English-speaking Intergroup sharing experience, strength and hope with English-speaking groups of Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland. The SwEnglish Group hosts several speaker weekends each year, along with our annual Anniversary convention. In order to help keep travel costs down for those paying an international 12-step call on us, members open their homes to offer homestays. If you are planning to visit Stockholm, Sweden, we hope you will join us for a meeting of the SwEnglish Group. Email us at swenglishgroup@gmail.com |