THE Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has joined the ranks of religious leaders such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dalai Lama by moving to reach worshippers on Twitter.

Right Rev Lorna Hood, who once claimed she was "the loneliest person on the internet" with only one Facebook friend, has tweeted her first official tweet in her role which she took on in May.

She said yesterday: "Jesus has many followers. I'd be happy with four or five hundred followers by Christmas. I'm looking forward to tweeting and talking with everyone who uses Twitter."

By the end of the day the clergywoman had 104 followers for two tweets.

The Moderator's first tweet was a lighthearted exchange with a lesbian minister from Glasgow, Rev Libby Spence, who spoke publicly of her sexuality for the first time at the last General Assembly.

Archbishop of Canterbury the Right Rev Justin Welby has 38,525 followers for his 381 tweets, while the site that claims to be the official Dalai Lama Twitter feed has 7,375,245 after 924 tweets.

Mrs Hood said she joined the website in a bid to reach out to churchgoers across the globe and to further involve the Kirk with the changes taking place in the digital age.