Before you go
No. AA is not a religion and asks nobody to believe anything. What the spiritual language means, and what to do if you would rather it was not there.
No. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religion, is not run by any church, and asks nobody to believe anything. The programme uses spiritual language, including the words God and higher power, and members interpret that however they like, or set it aside. Atheists and agnostics sit in ordinary UK meetings every night of the week, and there are secular and agnostic AA groups for people who would rather the question never came up.
That is the short answer. It is also the question that keeps more people out of the rooms than any other, so it deserves a proper one rather than a reassuring one.
Last updated: 23 September 2026.
The 12 steps were written in the United States in 1939, by men from a broadly Christian culture, and the wording shows its age. Several steps mention God. One of them adds the phrase members have leaned on ever since: as we understood Him.
The AA Preamble, read aloud at the start of most meetings, says the fellowship is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organisation or institution. In Great Britain, AA is a registered charity run by its own members. No church is behind it, and no church has ever owned it.
So the language is old and the door is wide. What a member does with the word God is their business. Some mean a god. Some mean the group in the room, or the programme, or just something with more sense than their own willpower at four in the morning. Some skip it entirely. Nobody is asked to explain which.
Usually a church hall, a scout hut or a room above a community centre. Stacking chairs in a rough circle, an urn, instant coffee, biscuits on a plate if somebody remembered. Someone reads a laminated card. Then people take turns talking about drinking and about how they stopped.
Some groups close with the Serenity Prayer, which asks for the serenity to accept the things you cannot change. Some do not. Nobody is asked to pray, to stand, to hold hands or to join in with anything. You can sit quietly through all of it. People do, every night, in every town.
There is no sermon. There is no scripture. Nobody in the room has authority over what you believe, because nobody in the room has authority over anything: the person chairing it this week is a volunteer who will not be chairing it next month. If you want the running order before you walk in, what to expect at your first meeting goes through it step by step.
No. A cult keeps you in. AA has no way of doing that, and no interest in it.
There is no membership list, no fee, no contract and no leader. Nobody takes your surname. You can walk out halfway through and never return, and not one person will follow up, because not one person has your number. Groups are run by volunteers on rotation, and AA's own traditions stop the fellowship endorsing, owning or lending its name to anything outside itself.
Most people arrive with a picture assembled from films and arrive in a room that is far more ordinary than the picture.
No, and this is where a lot of people relax. The step says a power greater than ourselves, and the fellowship has spent eighty years declining to define it for anyone. Members have used the group itself, the collective experience in the room, nature, the programme, and in one well-worn joke the number 11 bus, because it turns up whether or not you believe in it.
The practical point underneath the language is simpler than the language. Doing this alone had not worked yet. Something outside your own head gets a turn.
Then there are rooms with the wording taken out. AA groups run by and for agnostics, atheists and freethinkers have existed for decades, in person and online, and we list the UK ones on our non-religious recovery meetings page. Same programme, same welcome, no God talk.
There are also fellowships that never used that language in the first place. SMART Recovery is secular, run by a UK charity, built on tools from cognitive behavioural therapy, with no steps and no higher power. LifeRing is secular by design. Both are free, and their meetings sit in the same search as everything else here.
This is a list of what exists, not advice about which suits you. Plenty of non-believers go to ordinary AA meetings for years and never once mention it. Others try three things and keep two. You are allowed to say no to any part of any room, and to change your mind later. If you want them side by side, 12-step alternatives lays out the routes.
Then there is a meeting on tonight. Find an AA meeting in the UK, or search everything near you including the secular options and the online ones. You do not have to speak, decide anything about yourself, or believe a word.
If you would rather hear a voice before you go anywhere, AA Great Britain answers 0800 917 7650, free from any UK phone.
No. AA asks nobody to believe anything. The spiritual wording in the steps is interpreted by each member as they choose, or set aside. Atheists and agnostics attend ordinary UK meetings, and agnostic and secular AA groups run in person and online.
No. The steps were written in 1939 in a broadly Christian culture and the wording shows it, but AA is not allied with any church, denomination or religion. In Great Britain it is a registered charity run by its own members.
Some groups close with the Serenity Prayer and some do not. Nobody is asked to pray, stand, hold hands or join in. Sitting quietly through it is completely normal and nobody comments.
Yes. Groups run by and for agnostics, atheists and freethinkers meet across the UK and online, and 12stepfinder lists them. They follow the same programme with the religious wording left out.
Yes. SMART Recovery is secular, built on cognitive behavioural tools, with no steps and no higher power. LifeRing is secular by design. Both are free and run UK meetings. Neither is better in general, and some people use more than one.
No. There is no membership list, no fee, no contract and no leader with authority over you. You can leave at any point and nobody follows up, because nobody has your details. Groups are run by volunteers on rotation.