Methodist youth take to Twitter for Remembrance services

Young Methodists are harnessing social networking site Twitter to hold two services of Remembrance on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

Twitter Remembrance (www.twitter.com/Poppy_Tweet) is the brainchild of James Thomas, from Cardiff.

Thomas said he started the project on Wednesday after realising that no one had done a Twitter-based Remembrance service before.

“We hope to engage young people and other people who wouldn’t otherwise engage with Remembrance, whilst rising awareness for the Royal British Legion, Peace Pledge Union and other related charities,” he said.

In addition to attracting the young, it is hoped that the Twitter service will fill a gap for those unable to make it to a traditional Remembrance service in person.

The service features prayers and readings, as well as hymns and music linked from YouTube. President of the Methodist Conference, the Rev Leo Osborn, will be among those contributing tweets.

Millions of people in the UK will hold a two-minute silence at 11am today to mark the moment the guns fell silent in World War I.

The Twitter service will also mark the silence by holding back from tweets for two minutes.

A special Twitter sermon has been written for the occasion by the Rev Joanne Cox, Evangelism in Contemporary Culture Officer for the Methodist Church in Britain.

The sermon has been formatted to make it suitable for Twitter’s 134-character tweets.

“Remembrance is a powerful opportunity for us all to stop in the midst of life,” she said.

“As we stop, and as we remember people who have fought for peace in so many different ways, we are also responding to the invitation to be people of peace and courage ourselves.”