Research by Premier Christian Radio has revealed that Bishop Nick has sent the most tweets of all Church of England bishops and is the second most active episcopal tweeter.
Since he gained a Twitter account in 2009, he has sent 13,800 tweets.
In terms of average monthly tweets, the Bishop of Crediton, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, comes first with 165 tweets a month. Bishop Nick is second with 135 month. He also has a particularly high following of nearly 14,000.
The top five, in terms of the average number of tweets posted monthly, are:
- Rt Rev Sarah Mullally Bishop of Crediton- 165 tweets
- Rt Rev Nick Baines Bishop of Leeds.- 135 tweets
- Rt Rev Christine Hardman Bishop of Newcastle – 110 tweets
- Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell Bishop of Chelmsford – 105 tweets
- Rt Rev Paul Bayes Bishop of Liverpool – 104 tweets
Of 110 bishops surveyed, almost two in five bishops don’t have a Twitter account.
Read the full article here.
Bishop Nick says, "New media offer access to people like me who might otherwise seem to belong to a remote and mysterious world. They also enable us to engage outside our self-selected safe communities, be present in a space where a different sort of conversation can be had and allow connectivity between people, groups and ideas that in a previous generation might not have been possible, even if desirable".
He stresses the importance of taking part in debate and listening online rather than preaching: “What defines the new generation is interconnectivity and interactivity, so if the church is going to attempt online engagement, posts should not simply preach but be part of a conversation.
“That actually goes back to the gospel. People asked Jesus a question, he addressed it, and then they were free to either stay and listen or leave. He didn’t feel he had to hit them with the whole package in one go. Some people never came back, and that was OK. That’s very online-ish.
"And Twitter is also a vehicle for an otherwise disconnected community to pass on sources of information or observation that might otherwise have been missed. The 140 characters are a means, not an end".