Del Ray United Methodist Church

Recovery  Ministries at Del Ray Church

       Del Ray United Methodist Church hosts two Alcoholics Anonymous fellowships, Early Birds and the Del Ray Group.  The Del Ray fellowship meets at 7:30 on Thursday evenings and Early Birds lives up to its name, meeting Monday through Friday at 7 AM.  Both groups meet in Lunceford Hall for one hour sessions.  The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.  Meetings begin with a reading of the twelve steps which are the foundation for recovery from alcoholism.  Those steps are:
1.  We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become  unmanageable.
2.  Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3.  Made a decision to turn our will & our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4.  Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5.  Admitted to God, to ourselves, & to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6.  Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
 7.  Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8.  Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9.  Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.  Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11.  Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12.  Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Everlasting Arms   
     On the first Sunday of every month at 7 PM, Del Ray UMC offers a worship service called, The Everlasting Arms.    

Recovering alcoholics and sufferers of other addictions, as well as those who seek a greater understanding of the process of recovery, gather in the beautiful Del Ray UMC sanctuary to address the 11th Step.  It is a time and place to experience the presence of God, to be nourished by God's peace and power, and to receive the outpouring of God's grace within a spiritual community of people in a common search for recovery, healing, growth and wholeness. The service is led by Rev. Betty Brown. If you wish to know more about AA, the recovery process, or The Everlasting Arms, please call her at 540-233-1646.