You no longer have to ask God for help to beat alcoholism in Greater Toronto.

Two agnostic chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous are once again being welcomed into the fold of the international organization’s Greater Toronto Area Intergroup, as part of a mediated settlement of a discrimination complaint before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, announced Monday.

“This is going to save lives,” remarked Larry Knight, 59, who made the complaint after the two chapters were delisted from the GTA umbrella group in 2011. “People are going to have an opportunity for recovery where they felt they did not have one before.”

AA’s 12 Steps, 12 Traditions and Big Book are replete with references to God as the higher power to whom members turn for help in becoming and staying abstinent.

Knight was involved with the founding of two agnostic AA groups in Toronto, one in 2009 and another the following year. There was no mention of God during weekly meetings.

Someone unhappy with the removal of references to God complained to the Intergroup.

The Intergroup is a communication vehicle for local groups. It creates a directory of local meetings, both online and in hard copy.

Members of the Intergroup voted to delist the two agnostic chapters almost six years ago.

Knight, a woodworker and photographer who credits AA for helping him to stay sober for 23 years, challenged the move with the help of Toronto’s Human Rights Legal Support Centre.

“This is a massive victory for sobriety and inclusion,” Megan Evans Maxwell, a lawyer with the centre, said of the mediated settlement.

She explained that under the settlement, agnostic members still must acknowledge the 12 steps as they are written — including with references to God — but can interpret the steps in any way they see as personally meaningful.

In practical terms, that means agnostic meetings can be held without any verbal reference to God, she said.

As well, the settlement means the agnostic groups can participate in the Intergroup and are once again listed in its directories.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The Intergroup released a statement Monday saying its members are “mindful of the principle encapsulated in Tradition 10 of the 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous that the Alcoholics Anonymous name ought not to be drawn into public controversy, which would include discussing this matter through the media.”

The group added that in its view, “the matter of the complaint and the settlement is best left to the collective conscience of the AA members in the Greater Toronto Area.”