3.4 – How ACOP’s Beliefs Have Evolved

[Curtis]

Yes now as laws change in Canada the statement of faith will need to be updated in the future

[Jenn]

I personally would love to see an egalitarian view of gender represented in ACOP’s statement of faith and not have it left to individual churches.

[ECO]

@Jenn I think many people would like this, but as a fellowship, we respect each church’s ability to shape their statement of faith on “secondary issues.” I know in our culture that this doesn’t feel like a secondary issue, but that is how it is viewed currently. I expect it will become a more pressing issue in the near future, but I don’t say that with any insider knowledge or as an authoritative representative of ACOP, rather, I see it becoming a more pressing issue because of the growing social/cultural pressure and that ACOP ordains females and ACOP churches hire female pastors.

[Charla]

I would agree that gender identity may need to be addressed in the future. That might look like a revision to how the statement defining marriage is worded. But perhaps that topic is more appropriately addressed in the code of conduct required by ACOP or individual churches?

[ECO]

@smythc1 thanks for your comment. ACOP has written a white paper on human sexuality and probably needs to do the same on the subject of gender. The new course launching in April provides details about the white paper.

You are right about questions like these being handled at the local church level. See my comment above to Jenn.

[John]

A future consideration for Christian organizations may involve virtual reality. While this has been in the culture for some time, future technology may make it common place.

With the meta verse and another platforms, justification may be made by some to take part in sinful activities and/or ignore the real world altogether. What about an AI service that allows “marriage” to a virtual partner.

On the other hand, the rise of virtual reality could prove useful for evangelism. This whole area may be considered as secondary issues but at least, may be discussed for a primary issue.

[Micah]

This is a really interesting thought. I wonder how prominent this area of technology will become. It will be interesting to see how churches adapt to a cultural world very different from the 1st century and how scripture is interpreted to address things like VR and AI. It makes me wonder if the church will initially be very closed to it, like they were during the introduction of TV, and miss out on potential outreach things, or if it will allow for lots of freedom.

On a similar note, though it may not be distinct enough to need in a statement of faith, this makes me think of growing issues with online pornography. Our world and media is saturated with it, leading to alarming numbers of very young people being exposed and addicted. How can the church defend holiness while still using things like VR and social media as witnesses in a broken world? Is this something that ever should need to be in a statement of faith? (it is mostly a question that came to mind)