The day opened with Luke 5 — the call of Levi, and the parable of new wineskins. Chairing the meeting, the Rev Dr Paul Goodliff drew the morning’s frame from the passage: discipleship is not parasitism; the call is to a new wineskin for a new generation, while the wine — the apostolic faith — does not change. That ancient-and-new tension, echoed later in the Vatican’s recent Antiqua et Nova, ran through the conversation all day.
Two speakers brought what they called “overlapping but contrasting” views. Chris Goswami, of the AI Christian Partnership, took the room through capability, concerns and response — a sober tour of what AI now does well, where it endangers Christian formation, and how the church might engage. He named the dangers plainly: cognitive debt, parasocial chatbots, deepfakes, and the seductive idolatry of a technology that seems to speak.
Phil Hewinson, of Multiply Academy, then set aside his prepared deck and asked an AI agent — live, in the room — to generate a presentation from the morning’s transcript and his own background notes. Two and a half minutes later, slides began to appear. His thesis: the quality of any AI output is determined almost entirely by the context given to it. Without context, AI is generic. With the wisdom of this room — across denominations, across decades — it can carry real depth. “AI cannot disciple anyone,” he reminded the group. “Discipleship is a person walking with a person, walking with Jesus.”
The discussion that followed was rich and unhurried. Members weighed hallucination and verification, the cultural homogeneity of AI-generated Christian content, the privatisation of faith, and the place of struggle in spiritual formation. One contribution reframed the whole day: “I came in to think about how we use AI to help in discipleship — but the more important question may be the reverse: how do we disciple people well to use AI?”
Resources were shared from BRF’s Holy Habits, the GOLD Project, The Word in the World, and Faith in Later Life. Talk turned to whether organisations might one day kite-mark theologically sound AI Christian content, with CTE as a natural convening hub. The group meets again on 25 November, online, to discuss that reverse question “how do we disciple people well to use AI?”
This article was generated by AI from the following prompt: “Generate a 400-word synopsis of the group, humanised for use as a web story — check the CTE website and recently published stories for examples of style.” [Referencing supplied context from the meeting transcript, the briefing notes prepared for the day, the slide content used in Phil Hewinson’s presentation, and recent news stories published on cte.org.uk for tone and house style.]
Membership of the Bible and Discipleship Group
The new CTE Bible and Discipleship Group has met twice so far. Those attending have included the Gold Project, BRF – Ministries, Focolare, Lifewords, Roots for Churches, Faith in Later Life, Bible Society, LiCC, Navigators, Christian Enquiry Agency and Thy Kingdom Come. And from our national Member Churches, the Church of England, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, the Oecumenical Patriarchate, the Baptist Union and the Lutheran Church of Great Britain.
If your organisation would like to be involved in this group, please contact the Principal Officer for Mission and Evangelism, Rev Dr Ben Aldous.