Prominent Leaders in Religion and Social Media

Five Social Media Trends that are Reshaping Religion*

1. Social Prayer: Social networking spaces as vibrant locales for religious formation, spiritual care, witness, and advocacy. Expect to see the most vigorous engagement on pages created by believers and seekers themselves on the basis of their spiritual interests and developing practices. Ministers-On-The-Go: As the reality of part-time, bi-vocational, and otherwise extra-congregational lay and ordained ministry continues to grow, believers and seekers shaped by digital culture increasingly expect mobile accessibility to everything. O-Holy Apps: Apps are available for adherents to just about any religious group you can think of and have been developed for a large number of congregations, dioceses, and other religious organizations. Curate as Curator: Religionistas who can curate content that facilitates online and offline connection will earn more stars in the digital book of everyday life than those who continue to share their word in more traditional ways (sermons, etc.) A Few New Commandments: The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and the United States Conference for Catholic Bishops are among those who have created social media guidelines for churches
* http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/5463/five_social_media_trends_that_are_reshaping_religion_

2.

3. 4.

5.

Social Media Effect on Religious Authority

In recent years, faith community leaders have started building social media brands to help differentiate themselves from others In the past religious authority was given and everything ran on a top-down format. But because of social media and the way pastors are connecting with their followers the authority is co-constructed and a shared experience By posting spiritual thoughts instead of just scripture, pastors make themselves a part of the conversation and not just a leader, which in turn creates an easier environment for those who aren't usually involved with religion and ups the interest level

Pope Benedict and Pope Francis

Pope Benedict created Twitter handle @pontifex, which means bridge builder: to promote continuity in leaving room for faith no matter what generation youre in. Pope Francis continued to build on this attitude and constantly promotes reaching out to people, listen to what they have to say, and then offer them hope, offer them light, offer them Christ. As of Oct. 29, 2013 @pontifex had a total of 10,070,848 followers, making Pope Francis 2nd most followed world leader only behind US President Barack Obama. Pope Francis even went so far as to promise virtual absolution for those who digitally attended prayer through Twitter.

Justin Welby
Archbishop of Canterbury. He was consecrated as a bishop at York Minster on 28 October 2011 and was appointed Archbishop on November 9, 2012 He appointment as Archbishop only over a year after being consecrated as bishop was mainly credited to his pursuit to bridge religion to ethics and finance, which was promoted rapidly by his heavy involvement in social media. When his appointment was announced (and it went out first on Twitter) Justin Welby said he would continue to tweet as Archbishop of Canterbury unless forcibly stopped. Instagram account adds to his Facebook and Twitter accounts as he embraces web-based social outreach. Welbys use of the photosharing network to blast out support for the U.K.s credit unions on International Credit Union Day. We need to be a risk-taking church :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjwmRnfwTbU

Chito Tagle
Appointed as the 32nd Archbishop of Manila on October 13, 2011. Received the pallium as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See, by Pope Benedict on June 29, 2012. Named to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict on October 24, 2012 ,the second youngest in the group. Tagle, regarded as The Asian Karol Wojtya, is the most active Cardinal on Facebook and boasts 123,000 Likes. Since Jan. 1 2013, his page has accounted for 52 percent of all cardinalss socialmedia use, producing more than 57,000 posts, comments and shares. Tagle's keynote speech on social media spirituality highlighted the capability of social networking and social communications to unite people not only in friendship, but in promoting causes. "In the use of social media, take the word 'friend' seriously. Don't reduce it to a mere label" or run a contest on having the most number of friends, the bishop said.