A NUN has turned to Twitter to offer prayer, reflection, and
comments on current events - including the England football team's
departure from Euro 2012.
Sister Elizabeth (above), a member of the Anglican
Sisters of Bethany, in Portsmouth, said: "We can express love for
God on Twitter, and we try to help others to discover his
love."
Although her tweets can be prompts to prayer, or uplifting
thoughts, it "wasn't all spiritual", she said. She tweeted on
England's being knocked out of Euro 2012 last Sunday: "The sabbath
was made for man, but was it made for professional football
matches. . . ? God won, England out!" The urge to tweet, she said,
came because it was "important not to ignore any way of
communicating about God. . . We recognised that social media was
how people often communicated these days; so it made us have a look
at it.
"I have a bit of a missionary streak, and I think it's great
that we can communicate with an online community, most of whom
we'll never meet. It shows that nuns are human beings, not pious
people who are always thinking about spiritual things."
She does not have a smartphone, but logs on to a computer.
Posting as #bethanysister, she currently has nearly 500
followers.