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"The Church of England is happy that this site is available as a hub for people seeking to engage with the church and its various tweeters."
Who would have though it eh?
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News has reached the Twurch of the first ever Twitter Communion to be performed in the UK. Organised by the Revd Tim Ross, (a non-conformist minister in some Wesleyan outfit) this sacramental technological wonder will take place at 10pm on Sunday August the 14th. Wowsers! If only we'd thought of it first.We asked Tim Ross what it was about.
Since any Twitter user anywhere in the world can follow me and take part, it will see Christians from all over the world taking bread and wine together in real time. It may well be the first time this has ever been able to happen.
Cool! The prayer itself can be found here and consists of the following:
Father of us all, your people round the world join together in praising you.
God of wonder, we marvel at your grace, power and love.
From the depths of loving grace you gave us Jesus, your Son, our Saviour.
Dying, he brought us forgiveness. Rising, he brings us new life.
In this simple meal, we remember what Jesus shared with his followers and all that you share with us now in his name.
Fill us with your Spirit and through his power, bless these gifts of bread and wine to us.
The body of Christ was given for you. (Take bread)
The blood of Christ was shed for you. (Take wine)
Thank you that you are our Manna and our Daily Bread. May our food be doing your will and your joy our source of strength.
We spotted an epiclesis, but weren't sure exactly where the Sanctus, words of institution and fracture had been located. However, never one to avoid controversy, we decided to ask some of the Twurch's twittering Bishops what they thought of the idea and the liturgy. We sent out lots of emails and direct messages and we had a massive virtual postbag back...
Twitter communion is a nonsense. Church is a baptised eucharistic community of face-to-face relating. Remote consecration=magic , not Church
Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden, @pete173
Twitter Communion sounds like a serious attempt to offer spiritual comfort but I’d prefer the minister to go bedside and face to face. Remote consecration cannot be taken seriously; the physical presence and laying on of hands is a core aspect of consecration.
Bishop Paul Butler, Bishop of Southwell, @BishopPaulB
Anybody else? No? Well they're all probably off enjoying their summer holidays. But enough of the opinions of the pointy hats. What do you think? Tell us now in our exciting new whizzy flashy poll your thoughts on Communion by extension cable and active modem...
Apoll
Do you like the idea of a Twitter Communion?
Total votes: 36
Its been a little while since the Mouse compiled a top twittering bishops and clergy list, so here's an update for the Twurch of England blog. The list has grown rapidly so Mouse has expanded his ranking from a top 10 to a top 20 (21 actually due to a tie). As usual, rankings have been determined using Grader, which calculates your twitter authority. Of course, that doesn't mean that Mouse didn't get his calculator out to check the algorithms and make sure everything was in order. He is after all a most precise rodent.
The terribly exciting news (if these things excite you in the first place) is that we have a new leader at the top of the table. Bishop Alan Wilson's reign has finally come to an end (oh how the mighty have fallen...), with Archbishop John Sentamu picking up top slot.
If you don't already, everyone on this list is well worth following. After you've followed us first of course. Obviously.
| Rank | Name | Twitter Name | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mst Rev John Sentamu | johnsentamu | 99.6 |
| 2 | Rt Rev Alan Wilson | alantlwilson | 99.2 |
| 3 | Rev Maggi Dawn | maggidawn | 97.8 |
| 4 | Rev Alastair McCollum | revdal | 96.1 |
| 5 | Rt Rev Nick Baines | nickbaines | 95.7 |
| 5 | Rt Rev Pete Broadbent | pete173 | 95.7 |
| 7 | Rev Paul Walker | paulwalker71 | 95.3 |
| 7 | Rev Frances Wookey | countryvicar | 95.3 |
| 9 | Rev David Alexander | stopsleyvicar | 95 |
| 9 | Rev David Keen | davidmkeen | 95 |
| 9 | Rev Peter Ould | pould | 95 |
| 12 | Rev Arun Arora | revarun | 94 |
| 12 | Rev Evan Cockshaw | pastorev | 94 |
| 12 | Rev Kathryn Fleming | goodinparts | 94 |
| 12 | Rev David Meldrum | vicardave | 94 |
| 12 | Rev James Ogley | riggwelter | 94 |
| 12 | Rev Simon Rundell | frsimon | 94 |
| 18 | Rev Phillip Ritchie | philritchie | 93 |
| 19 | Rev Michele Barzey | Afrobehn | 92 |
| 19 | Rev Robb | changingworship | 92 |
| 19 | Rt Rev David Thomson | bpdt | 92 |
For they shall inherit the Twurch? Possibly, but one might begin by blessing the tools of the trade - laptops, pdas, mobile phones. That's what David Parrott, the vicar of St Lawrence Jewry Church in the City of London did.
And boy did he get some stick for it. The Sun said:
A VICAR has launched a bizarre bid to attract city workers to his church — by offering to BLESS their mobile phones and laptops.
The slightly more down to earth Times reported
Great efforts have been made to modernise the Church of England, but its liturgy dates from before the arrival of the Nokia 6310, and until yesterday, none had been brave enough to adapt its ceremonies to address the modern mysteries of 3G network coverage, iPhone apps and variable battery life.
The actual blessing used was as follows:
"May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our websites be accessible. By your blessing, may these phones and computers, symbols of all the technology and communication in our daily lives, be a reminder to us that you are a God who communicates with us and who speaks by your Word. Amen."
Here at the Twurch of England we are of course interested in all things IT so have absolutely no problem with invoking the Most High to be in the midst of all things SMS, twittery and the like. After all, all things come from God and of his own do we give him.
Begs the question though - is there anything we shouldn't bless or any techno we shouldn't embrace for the sake of the Gospel? The Twurch has an answer to that one as well...
Yes, we'll get our coats...
In case you missed it: Twurch in the Telegraph
Written by The Church Mouse
Just before Christmas this appeared in the Telegraph. Always thought it was a great paper.
----
Twitter service gathers the thoughts of almost 100 Church of England clergy
Churchgoers who miss services this Christmas can now keep up-to-date with the thoughts of almost 100 Anglican clergy around the country on Twitter.
By Martin Beckford
Published: 1:30PM GMT 22 Dec 2009
A new service has been developed that gathers the thoughts of the nine bishops, about 75 vicars and one Archbishop who use the popular “micro-blogging” website.
Anyone who follows the “Twurch of England” can read their latest thoughts and conversations, written in short messages of up to 140 characters either on computers or mobile phone.
The most high-profile religious figure to use Twitter is the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who is the second most senior cleric in the Church of England. Earlier this year he used Twitter to advertise for a new communications director.
Among the prelates who “tweet” regularly are the Rt Rev Alan Wilson, the Bishop of Buckingham, who was an early convert to blogging and now has more than 3,200 followers.
The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, and the Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Rev Pete Broadbent, are also enthusiastic users of Twitter but write almost as much about their favourite football teams as they do about God.
The blogger who developed the Twurch of England list, who calls himself the Church Mouse, said he hoped it would help bring clergy and their congregations closer together.
“The idea behind it was to try to help people engage with the church a little better by creating a platform where it is easy to meet and engage with the church online.
“It allows everyone to see what people inside the church are actually saying to each other, as well as to allow anyone to engage directly with the church.”
He added: “I just hope people will not be surprised to see that topics like football and the X Factor are talked about just as much by bishops and clergy as they are by anyone else.”
Clerics are expected to reach new levels of activity on Twitter this week as they prepare for Christmas, by swapping sermon advice and offering festive greetings to their followers.
However it is unlikely that any of them will dare to tap out messages from their Blackberries and iPhones during Midnight Mass.
The Church Mouse said: “We've already seen lots of Christmas Day sermon idea swapping and advice.
“It remains to be seen whether any clergy will be brave enough to tweet from the pulpit, however. I am expecting a peak of activity on Christmas Day.”
The Twurch of England list, which was developed by the Church Mouse and the Rev Peter Ould, can be found at http://twitter.com/twurchofengland/twurch-list or http://www.twurchofengland.org.uk.
It has been welcomed by the Church of England, which said: "The Church of England is happy that this site is available as a hub for people seeking to engage with the church and its various tweeters."
What a treat! We asked some of the top bloggers in the Church of England what they thought about twitter and look what came rolling in! Here's a fantastic contribution from a Mrs Trellis in North Wales Bishop Alan Wilson of Buckingham.
10 reasons I use Twitter...
- I like its immediacy; when I'm going out to a movie I can get a few opinions about what's on almost instantly
- it acts as a repeater for the blog feed, and helps tie my blog into Facebook (important because the facebook blog application used to be rather clunky and unresponsive)
- In a job where I inevitably often interact with people on an official level, it gives me a way of colouring the rest of what I'm about
- I occasionally search for terms like "pray for" to enrich my intercessory prayer
- It's good to be able to scour the twitterstream almost instantly for particular subjects and interests
- Cramming stuff into 140 without doing textspeak is a useful discipline
- I've had some great conversations with complete strangers on Twitter. For some reason I prefer it to DM's on Facebook; not sure why
- I like the ability to post the occasional photo off the iPhone almost instantaneously — Twitter seems to work almost seamlessly on a variety of platforms
- First with the News — I was very impressed by the Hudson plane crash arriving on twitter almost half an hour before conventional media had it
- The broadest range of articles and blogposts seems to come in from the twitterstream: I've discovered various new blogs from it