'I saw the likes' - Meet Shropshire's 29-year-old 'TikTok vicar' connecting with younger generations on social media

Rev Pippa White, who works in the Lichfield Diocese, only began her TikTok channel when she moved to Whitchurch a year ago.

Now with more than 19,000 followers and half a million video likes, the young priest said it is “joyous” to be able to connect with Generations Z and Alpha, bust myths and promote the faith on the popular social media platform. 

Speaking to the Shropshire Star, Pippa said it was actually her sister who suggested she should be a “TikTok vicar”. 

The priest, originally from Norfolk, explained: “When I moved to Whitchurch, I was like ‘well, maybe I'll give it a go’. 

“I made a few videos and they weren't getting many views but I was having fun. I was just making them for myself, to be honest. 

“And then one of them went viral and I felt like 'I might as well carry on now'. 

“It’s mostly a very joyous thing, which is really fun.” 

The videos are comedic - and informative - in nature, which allows Pippa to connect with a younger audience. 

In one recent video, which has amassed nearly 900,000 views and 129,000 likes, Pippa jokingly told her audience that they should consider “giving up men” for Lent with the caption “Jesus was such a girl’s girl”. 

Forming this connection requires challenging the youth’s perception of the church and Christianity, Pippa said. 

She explained: “For Gen Z, there is a high spiritual awareness and drive but that's not correlating to church attendance figures and things like that.

“There is a gap between young people and organised religion - I think it's the organised part of religion that Gen Z really struggles with.