The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, has just started blogging, and is the only diocesan bishop to do it: “The great opportunity is that actually we’re connecting with people that we would never connect with in other ways, so there are huge opportunities with people who would never go near a church service.
“Even though it’s very early, it’s very interesting to see that comments come from around the world, straight off. They come not necessarily from people who follow me on Facebook or Twitter. So the speed with which something goes round is something that, well, we’re not up to speed with!”
The Bishop of Buckingham, Dr Alan Wilson, and the Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, are both popular blogging bishops, but they are exceptional. Bishop Butler reflects on whether bishops need to be encouraged to get more involved: “I think it would be good if more of us did, but there I think we need to co-ordinate a bit. Mine will particularly focus on issues around children and childhood, because of my brief as advocate for children. The reason I did something on the papal visit was I thought hang on, Alan and Nick weren’t there, and I thought one of us needs to do this. So what I think would be worth us exploring is bishops blogging around different areas, so we’re not repeating each other.”