Posts

Steven Croft

Digital Discipleship

Bishop Steven gave the presidential address to Diocesan Synod on Saturday 14 June at Holy Trinity, Hazlemere.

“And Jesus said to them, Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old”

Matthew 13.52

A month ago on 14 May we welcomed around 100 young people into our conference of 280 clergy in Swanwick. The young people aged 15-17 came from four secondary schools across our diocese: Ranelagh, the Oxford Academy, Waddesdon and Churchmead. We wanted to listen together to their hopes and fears. I’m very grateful to the young people themselves and those who wrestled with the logistical challenges to enable them to be with us.

Students from the four schools helped to lead our Eucharist that day. The young people were inspiring. Then in the afternoon we spent ninety minutes in groups of around eight young people and around 15-20 clergy mainly listening to the hopes and fears of these amazing young people for their lives and for the church. Some of the young people were Christian; some were of other faiths; some were of no faith. The whole experience was immensely energising and enriching for the conference.

But my biggest takeaway and my starting point this morning was what came first on the list for the young people in terms of concerns for the future. It wasn’t the economy or the climate or war. For person after person as we went around the groups we heard the words artificial intelligence; technology; social media; AI.

Wrestling for a future

To expand a little: AI will do the jobs we are training to do. We don’t want our lives to be shaped by technology companies. What’s the point of school if the teacher cribs from ChatGPT? How do we know what is true? We feel helpless against deepfakes.

What do we have to say to those young people and millions like them as they wrestle with how to live their lives in a world dominated by technology and social media? What wisdom old and new can we bring out of the treasure house llike good scribes in schools and local churches? What should shape our approach to new technology as the Church?

The young people are mirroring the concerns in the rest of society. We might almost say Black Mirroring. Nine years ago when I began to explore the world of AI, that world felt like science fiction. Whenever I spoke on the subject I had to spend most of the time explaining what artificial intelligence is. As the technology has expanded, so has public awareness. According to a government survey published in December of last year, awareness of AI is now almost universal. But public trust in AI by many measures is falling.

Word cloud on terms to do with AI - the words are largely negative, with robot, scary and worried as the largest.

In this word cloud found in the same report the predominant words used are all negative: scary, worried; robot; unsure, echoing the insights and fears of our young people.

A rapidly rising trend

The greater public awareness of AI is of course driven by a combination of greater investment, some technological advances, a certain amount of hype and greater deployment of AI across many professions and in familiar software and search engines. We all encounter AI tools each time we use a search engine or a hold a meeting over Zoom. Some of us will be learning to use large language models like ChatGPT in work or study.

Over the course of 2025 we will become increasingly aware of AI Agents embedded in the software tools we use which are able to respond to simple instructions and carry out complex tasks.

A few weeks ago, I chaired a Westminster public policy forum looking at tackling disinformation and deepfakes in the United Kingdom. The different sessions explored the prevalence of deepfakes; sexually explicit deepfake images and synthetic sexual content, which is a rapidly rising trend; disinformation threats to the UK posed by hostile actors as well as strategies to combat all of this.

And there are news stories most days. According to a single edition of the Times on Wednesday: Westminster must prepare for the era of superintelligence (a column claiming the Turing test has now been passed). M&S take online orders again after attack (referencing the recent cyber attack). Period tracker app puts women’s safety at risk (a story about the harvesting of personal data which can be sold at scale). On the same day the BBC South featured the new Reading FC manager talking about the impact of AI on football. All of this and I’ve not yet mentioned social media, smartphones and mental health.

The Church at this moment

So how are we to seek to be the Church in this moment? What should we do and how should we respond and what wisdom old and new can we mine from our deep, deep treasure chambers of scripture and the tradition and the vast resources of good counsel held by our church members? What can we say to the young people who came to Swanwick; to the 60,000 young people who are part our schools across the diocese; to the tens of thousands of Christians who will be sharing in worship in our churches and chaplaincies this week? There are I think three messages I want to share with the church as we seek to live well with this new technology and at the heart of our response.

The first is to turn towards the human and the personal: to be rooted in the contemplative. The second is to develop wisdom and patterns for digital discipleship which are grounded in compassion for our selves and for others. The third is to find and use our voice to shape society: to engage; to be courageous. Allow me to explore each of these in turn.

Contemplative

The first turn then, the overarching priority in a world dominated by technology is for the Church of Jesus Christ to turn always towards the human, towards the personal, towards the relational, to be a face to face church.

Most questions around technology and artificial intelligence sooner or later raise questions about what it means to be human: about agency and imperfection and identity and mortality; about flourishing and relationships and love. As our world becomes more and more shaped by technology, it is a temptation for the church to be shaped more and more by technology in our common life, to be seduced by the spirit of the age.

A new humanity

But remember the doctrines at the core of our Christian faith and identity. We dare to believe that humankind is not a random accident or a step on a journey of evolution which will end with a disembodied universal consciousness. We dare to believe that humankind, men and women are made in the very image of God. That despite and because of our frailty and flaws each person is unique; deserving of dignity and respect; infinitely precious and loved and worthy of eternity and understanding and significance. We have been reflecting as the Church on what it means to be human in the Judaeo Christian tradition for over three thousand years in our stories and art and our liturgy. We have a major contribution to make.

We further dare to believe that Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, of the entire universe, became a human person in Jesus Christ and modelled for us what it means to love and to live well. Jesus’ life was shaped not by aggrandisement nor power,  nor seeking wealth but sacrifice. Jesus laid down his life for us on the cross. God raised him from the dead. Jesus gave to us the precious gift of the Holy Spirit to infuse our fallen humanity with Christ’s spirit and divinity and to prepare us for an eternal destiny. And Jesus calls together a new humanity spanning every nation across the earth called to live as Jesus lives as a sign and foretaste of God’s kingdom.

In this moment the Church needs to become deeply confident again in in this story; in our understanding of what it means to be human and what makes for human flourishing: love; relationship; forgiveness; service; purposeful work; good rhythms of life; welcoming intergenerational communities; inspiring worship.

How do we turn towards the human?

This means I think that all local churches and church schools will need to be circumspect and careful about the embracing of technology. In every decision this should be the question: how do we turn towards the human; to the relational; to the small; to the local. In this particular age the features of our church life which we can think of as weaknesses are actually turned into strengths: the small and the local and the relational and the countercultural are most likely to thrive in a decade when those around us are seeking truth and authenticity and community and love. We need to be a more confident, contemplative Church in the face of new technology; a more still and silent Church in the clamour of addictive technologies; a more authentic church in a climate of digital fakery.

Compassionate

The second turn is for the Church of Jesus Christ is to develop wisdom and patterns for digital discipleship which are grounded in compassion for others and for ourselves. There is a new dimension for all of our lives: the digital. We need to apply both new and ancient wisdom to our living in this new dimension for we are to be disciples in the whole of our living and the whole of ourselves: online and offline. It was apparent to me long before I came off all social media that many, many Christians express themselves online in ways they would not dream of speaking in person.

Ecological discipleship

Pope Francis coined the term ecological discipleship in his great encyclical Laudato Si’ on the environment: the whole way we live in such a way as to restore and repair the earth. In a different way we need to learn ourselves how to live well and wisely and compassionately  with technology; with the continual flows of information; with the ways in which we communicate; with the 24/7 society.

Digital discipleship will include learning and teaching good digital hygene and care of our data. It will include honesty and accountability about where our attention roams online. It will include recognising patterns of temptation and addiction in the private online spaces. It will mean guarding our integrity. It may mean recognising new temptations such as gambling or pornography or rekindling old relationships. Digital discipleship might mean developing patterns of digital sabbaths; weaning ourselves away from social media. Digital discipleship will mean reflecting carefully on the access we enable for our children and young people to screens and devices.

Communities of resistance

Is it possible for local churches to be become communities of resistance and reflection in relation to new technology: places where parents learn how to be good parents in the digital age; where young people learn the risks for the soul of hook ups and abusive sex replacing relationships; where those in mid life make real friendships in the real world as the antidote to isolation; where the shallow dopamine rewards of likes on Instagram are replaced by the inspiration of a worship service; where the listlessness and misery created by doom-scrolling can be transformed by hope, by self discipline and by joy.

Can churches be places where people learn the deep wisdom of being able to recognise truth and authenticity and reality in a world dominated by deep fakes and kindness and gentleness and mercy replace the harsh judgements of our cancel culture? Will we have the vision to apply the lessons in our sermons to the online world as well as the offline world? To invite our parishes and our schools into the profound adventure which is authentic Christian discipleship?

Courageous

And the third turn for the Church is to find and use our voice to shape society; to engage; to be courageous.

There is no doubt that AI and technology are shaping our society in the present and will be a shaping force in the future. There will be benefits in medicine; in research; in automation; perhaps in productivity. But there will be many areas where protest and guidance and counter movements are needed to resist the entire shaping of society in the interests of the big technology companies.

Parliament has seen a significant battle this week between on the one hand the creative industries and on the other the interests of Big Tech in the attempts to amend the new Data Use and Access Bill to introduce greater transparency in the training of AI models on others original work. That is just once instance of where the battle lines are being drawn.

Vigilance on AI

The final document issued by Pope Francis in January Antiqua et Nova takes Matthew 13.52 as a guiding text and lists no less than ten areas where Church and Society will need to be vigilant about the effects and benefits of AI:

  1. Society
  2. Human relationships
  3. The economy and labour
  4. Healthcare
  5. Education
  6. Misinformation, deepfakes and abuse
  7. Privacy and surveillance
  8. The protection of our common home
  9. Warfare
  10. Our relationship with God

The bigger picture

Each of these areas needs investment, reflection, a critique and resistance. The last nine years have taught me that there are very few voices in society able to step back and look at the larger picture of what technology is doing to society. The Churches and the faith communities can and should be one of those voices engaged in this reflection and engaged in campaigning at every level. Over the past year we have seen the power of parental engagement in campaigns on online safety, on children’s mental health and on banning mobile phones from the classroom. As churches we need to be speaking out and also nurturing this careful critique, reflection and resistance.

To return to again to the young people who came to the clergy conference. I don’t think they were wrong to be anxious about the impact of technology on their lives. The Church needs to be watchful and careful in the coming years. I hope these three key turns will provide a framework and a reference point for three turns we need to make.

The first is to turn towards the human and the personal: to be rooted in the contemplative. The second is to develop wisdom and patterns for digital discipleship which are grounded in compassion for our selves and for others. The third is to find and fuse our voice to shape society: to engage; to be courageous.

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Steven Croft

Treasure in clay jars – Synod address

Word Cloud for AI terms

Bishop Steven gave the presidential address to Diocesan Synod on Saturday 8 March at Didcot Civic Hall.

Back to Christ

In a well known and loved passage in 2 Corinthians, Paul reflects on the transforming power and wonder of the gospel: “the light of the gospel of glory of Christ who is the image of God” (4.4).

“For”, he goes on, “we do not proclaim ourselves” – a temptation for every Church in every generation – “we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake” (5).

The Church in Corinth is facing multiple crises: of disorder; of immorality; of ethics; of confidence in leadership and ministry; of reputation; of finance. In the midst of this crisis Paul draws their attention again and again away from themselves and back to Christ:

“For it is God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (6).

Our own Church and our Diocese need to hear those words afresh again this morning as we gather for this Synod bearing the wounds and scars of a fractured Church. Our first calling, our first prayer, our first love, our salvation is to remember God’s glory revealed in Jesus Christ in our worship and contemplation.

Then Paul reminds us in a powerful metaphor how we are to imagine ourselves in relation to the glory of God and the inestimable treasure of the gospel:

“But we… but we… have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us”.

Paul goes on to describe just how ordinary and earth bound these clay jars can become: “We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh”. So that the life of Jesus may be made visible.

Who is Paul describing in this metaphor of clay jars: not the highly decorated ornaments we find in museums but the ordinary clay pots for everyday use found in every home. He describes himself and his companions, certainly, underlining their struggles and elsewhere in the letter, their past failings and their present imperfection. He is describing the experience of every minister, lay and ordained, who has ever struggled to write a sermon; to give comfort to the dying; to reconcile the factions on a church council; to preach to a congregation of unbelievers at a wedding or a funeral.

Treasure in jars of clay

But Paul is also intentionally describing here the Church in every time and place, not only the ministers. The Corinthians and the Anglicans and everyone else are meant to turn the metaphor around and rediscover who they are: we are small and ordinary and weak and barely know how to be the people of God; we have this treasure in jars of clay.

We will all have experienced a range of emotions over the last four months following the publication of the Makin review: immense grief and compassion for survivors of church related abuse and mistreatment; deep anger at the failings of the Church; concern for those caught at the heart of multiple storms in the media; shame and contrition at our own shortcomings or blindness and also for the failings of others. All of us will need to give ourselves and each other permission to grieve and to question and to be angry and to long for something better. As one writer has said, in this season, part of taking up our cross and the painful cost of our discipleship is to be identified with the failings of the institutional church and then to commit ourselves to the task of rebuilding and repair.

We will want to take from all of this grief and anger a renewed sense of the fallibility of the church and of all human institutions. Clay jars. Cracked pots. You will no doubt have been reflecting as I have in this season on the perpetual imperfection of the Church. In 1 Corinthians Paul describes the Church in Corinth in a different metaphor as God’s field (1 Cor 3.9).

Wheat and the weeds

According to Matthew, Jesus tells a powerful parable about a field: about someone who sowed good seed “but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away”. Weeds and fruitful plants grow together. The Church is a mixed community and will always be a mixed community. According to the interpretation of the parable in Matthew, the devil has a strategy to disrupt and corrupt the Church. Ultimately God’s kingdom will prevail. But the Church will always be a mixture of good and bad together, locally and in dioceses and in Provinces.

There are multiple temptations here. Our first calling is to be watchful. In the parable, the enemy sows tares while everyone is asleep. Our structures, resources and attitudes need to lead to greater watchfulness, deeper curiosity, greater alertness to risk as the keys to a safer church. We should grieve wherever we go wrong and wherever we see evil in the life of the Church but we should not be surprised or deflected from our purpose of proclaiming Christ as Lord.

Our Church must learn deep and lasting lessons from this crisis. We have already heard about the decisions taken by the General Synod and the national church to reform scrutiny of safeguarding; to attend to survivors in every sense; to reform our disciplinary processes and culture. We will hear later in this meeting about safeguarding in our own diocese, for which we each carry responsibility. It is right that this Synod has the time it needs for scrutiny of this part of our common life. It was good to note this week that in the context of a challenging debate on Church of England safeguarding in the House of Commons, the excellent practice in our own Diocese was singled out by Sean Woodcock, one of our local MPs.

Come and See

This essential, vital work of safeguarding, mending the cracked pots, must support a greater purpose: the seeing and proclaiming of the gospel of the glory of Christ. We are meeting today in the first few days of Lent. This year I am inviting the whole Diocese to explore again the meaning of our baptism. Our baptism helps us to understand our humanity: who we are and how we are to live. Come and See will explore baptism through the four fundamental biblical images of earth, water, wind and fire. We are made from earth, from dust, as we were reminded on Ash Wednesday. Frail children of dust and feeble as frail as the hymn puts it. We are part of the creation. We need to be washed outwardly and inwardly in baptism. We need the wind, the breath of God to dwell within us and transform us. We need the fire of God afresh in our discipleship in this generation to fill our hearts with love for God and for God’s world. If you have not yet signed up for Come and See it’s not too late to join the journey together in the coming days.

Shepherds of Christ’s flock

It is very good at this Synod to welcome Bishops Dave and Mary and to rejoice in their new ministries. Many of us were present in Canterbury Cathedral ten days ago or will have watched the service online. We will have been reminded that the ministry entrusted to them will be a demanding and sacrificial ministry. But we will have been reminded also that this ministry is part of the wider purposes of God for the world:

“Bishops are ordained to be shepherds of Christ’s flock and guardians of the faith of the apostles, proclaiming the gospel of God’s kingdom and leading his people in mission”

Watchfulness in prayer is a sign of God’s calling but its centre will be to see and proclaim the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ who is the image of God.

A holistic mission to children and young people

And finally in this Synod we will focus again on our ministry to children, young people and families. Our world faces many challenges and crises and all of them bear acutely on the well being of children, young people and families in our communities. The crisis in mental health; the multiple crises in the environment; the crisis of war in Europe; the crisis in the economy will all bear down on the children and young people of our own diocese.

Our ministry and mission to those children and young people is a holistic mission, caring for the whole person and their environment but centred on helping them to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God and calling them to a lifetime of following Jesus.

A year ago in this Synod I called on every parish and every deanery to develop plans for the renewal of our work with children and young people in the remainder of this decade. That call resonated widely across the diocese. I’m grateful for all the work which has been done. We will receive an update on progress later this morning. If your own parish and deanery has not fully engaged with this priority then please would you find time and energy to set our mission to the young at the heart of the life of the church again in this coming year. If you have made a good beginning, then please continue to deepen that work. The foundation of what we are seeking to do is hearing the voices of children and young people.

Conviction and determination

We heard earlier this week that our bid for national funding to support this work has not been been successful in this round of applications. This was not because of the quality of the bid but because of the demands on the Church Commissioners funds and the prioritising of bids from dioceses with less resources. This news will be very disappointing to the deaneries which invested a huge amount of work in the bid, to the team which worked so hard to put the bid together and to many others.

However our central calling and conviction that together we need to prioritise ministry to children, young people and families remains and indeed I hope our determination to invest here as a diocese will grow.

We are still aiming overall to see the number of children and young people engaging with our churches to double over the next five years. This means every church and church school, every priest, every church officer, every lay minister, every PCC needs to be engaged with this part of God’s mission. The grant funding would have been and could still be extremely helpful. But the resources we need to do this are mainly in the grace of God and the gifts of all God’s people in this diocese. But God’s mission depends most of all on our prayers and on the support of the people of God. Together we will see God do miracles in this area of our life together.

“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us”.

Celebrating the flaws

I made my first and probably my only visit to Japan last year and discovered a way of mending cracked and broken pots: the Japanese art of Kintsugi: the craft of mending broken glazed pottery with gold, crafting something new and even more beautiful from what is broken. In Kintsugi the breaks and flaws are not hidden but highlighted and draw the eye. Kintsugi is the art of embracing imperfection, of celebrating the flaws and missteps of life, of rejoicing in hope and grace, forming something which is stronger and more beautiful out of weakness.

This vision of Kintsugi is my own vision for the Church of England and our Diocese at this time. We have this treasure in clay jars. But God is the maker and mender, restoring the Church, the bride of Christ, in still greater glory in which the cracks and scars will show, like the wounds of the cross on the Body of Christ in the day of resurrection. This is the only way a fallen, broken church is able to bear witness in this world in crisis to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

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