Twittering the Passion of Christ

The use of new media to attract the public is used in a unique way this Good Friday as Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church twittered the Passion of Christ, the story of the crucifixion. For 3 hours the church posted tweets adapted from the Gospel of Mark into 140 character tweets for an audience of more than 1,700. "The story was largely told through the eyes of six characters: Jesus, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Peter, a serving girl and Pontius Pilate."

"What we are trying to do at Trinity Wall Street is to communicate the story of Christ in as many ways as we can," said Linda Hanick, Trinity's vice president of communication and marketing."

While it may be new to Twitter, Trinity, founded in the 17th century, is not new to the Web. The parish near the World Trade Center site has been streaming events, services and concerts on the Internet since the late 1990s, and last year joined Facebook. Twitter "was kind of the next evolution in communicating the Gospel message," Hanick said. Twitter makes sense for congregations to spread their word, said the Rev. Charles Henderson, a Presbyterian minister and founder of the First Church of Cyberspace, GodWeb.org. Twitter has 10 million users, according to ComScore, an Internet market research firm.