Sobriety pages

Father Jonah has been involved in pastoral care for patients with alcoholism and drug addiction for more than 10 years; since 2005, at the Danilov Monastery, under his leadership, there has been a preventive program “Metanoia” (“repentance” or “change of mind” in Greek), built on the methods of the community “Alcoholics Anonymous” ""Twelve steps." Abbot Jonah's book "Pages of Sobriety. Reading for Every Day" was written to help patients and their relatives. This is a kind of diary, but you don’t need to fill it out, but read it - a small piece of text for every day helps a person to hold on, not to give up the milestones they have conquered from the disease.

The first edition of Abbot Jonah's book was published in 2009, when many priests flatly refused to even discuss the Twelve Steps program and the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) community, despite the fact that the community came to Russia more than 20 years ago and is working quite fruitfully, and Patriarch Alexy II back in 2005 blessed the creation of mutual support groups involved in the AA program at churches and monasteries. Developed in the USA in the 1930s, the program was perceived by many as “Protestant” and “sinful.” Now the situation has changed dramatically: more and more priests are convinced that the program is effective and is not an obstacle to a person’s churching. Moreover, as one of the hosts of the evening, Abbot Peter (Meshcherinov), said, “churched alcoholics make the most conscientious and responsible parishioners.” Abbot Jonah, however, believes that AA self-help groups in Russia have not yet received wide recognition and “exist on some kind of fringe.” He called on the group members themselves to be more active - they should take on an evangelistic role and spread knowledge about the A.A. program. Of course, this task is also fulfilled by what is written by Fr. Jonah’s book, as the second presenter of the evening, publishing editor of Tserkovny Vestnik, Sergei Chapnin, said, is unique from the point of view that it refracts pastoral experience in literary form.