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Tweeting nun expresses 'love for God' on Twitter

by
29 June 2012

by a staff reporter

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.

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