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Announcing the new Archbishop

Friday, 9 November 2012

Twitter brings you closer to the things you care about, and for many people around the world that’s religion.

Today was a significant day for members of the Anglican faith as the Church of England (@C_of_E) and Number 10 (@Number10Gov) announced the appointment of the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. 

And it was fitting that they selected Twitter as the platform on which to make this historic announcement, sharing their decision instantly with congregations across the faith’s 16,000 churches and 1.7m regular churchgoers.

The official announcement was made by @Number10Gov, the Twitter account of the office of the Prime Minister:

There was also an official hashtag (#newabc) so that Twitter users could join the conversation. Over the last 24 hours there have already been more than 40,000 mentions of the news on Twitter.

Once the announcement had been made, @C_of_E and @LambethPalace went on to live-tweet updates from their press conference.

Justin Welby is currently the Bishop of Durham and tweets as @bishopofdurham. He told the press conference that he plans to continue when he takes on the new role in 2013:

Many took to Twitter to send their congratulations to the new Archbishop, including John Sentamu (@JohnSentamu), the Archbishop of York:

Well wishes also came from other faith leaders including @BishopAngaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK:

Even the @bishopofdurham’s daughter @KatharineWelby joined the conversation:

Reverend Arun Arora (@RevArun), Director of Communications for the Church of England, told Twitter:

“When we announced the last appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury ten years ago, Twitter didn’t even exist. Now in 2012, it is giving people all over the world the chance to connect with their faiths in exciting and inspiring ways.

“We’re delighted to be using Twitter to share the news of the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury. By embracing digital communication tools such as Twitter we hope to bring Anglican congregations around the globe closer than ever to their spiritual leaders.”