A young female vicar has become a TikTok sensation, racking up millions of views with her behind-the-scenes videos of church life.
Reverend Pippa White, 29, started her channel just a year ago as a way to connect with younger generations after moving to a parish in Shropshire.
The former barmaid, now known as "The Tiktok Vicar", has since gained tens of thousands of followers on the platform.
Pippa's content ranges from lighthearted glimpses into her life at St Alkmund's Church to attending Taylor Swift concerts and playing rugby. The Church of England priest expressed her desire to represent young women in the church and promote faith among Generations Z and Alpha.
Originally from Norfolk and now residing in Whitchurch, Shropshire, Pippa revealed that it was her sister who first suggested she become a "TikTok vicar". She said: "When I moved to Whitchurch, I was like 'well, maybe I'll give it a go'."
Despite her initial videos not gaining much traction, Pippa enjoyed making them for her own amusement. However, when one of her videos went viral, she decided to continue creating content.
She described the experience as "It's mostly a very joyous thing, which is really fun."
With 20,000 followers on TikTok, Pippa's videos strike a balance between comedy and education, allowing her to engage with a younger audience.
In a cheeky TikTok that's gone viral with nearly 900,000 views and 129,000 likes, Pippa quipped to viewers that "giving up men" for Lent might be a good plan, with the caption reading "Jesus was such a girl's girl".
Pippa highlighted the need to reshape how young people view the church and faith, asserting that despite their spiritual curiosity, Gen Z doesn't often translate this into church attendance.
She remarked: "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."
Pippa accredited her venture into TikTok as a response to the disconnect between the Church of England and younger generations, spurred by a perceived irrelevance or negative news.
"So I think there is a lot of mistrust between the Church of England and young people.
"And I completely understand why - I do not blame people for that."
She sees her TikToks as an opportunity to combat false impressions about what the church represents.
"A big part of my TikTok, for me, is just trying to gently push back against misconceptions, and what people may think church is."
The response to her Lent-themed video took Pippa by surprise, revealing a wider divide in perceptions between feminism and Christianity.
"The Lent video went much bigger than I predicted. It also really shocked me because I am so used to feminist theology and viewing Jesus as feminist and things like that.
"I forget that, for a lot of people, they see feminism and Christianity as completely mutually exclusive.
"So the comments on that and the engagement with that was a real shot in the arm to remind me that actually a lot of people see Christianity as quite misogynistic. That was really interesting.
"And when you have positive engagement like that, it's so life-giving. I'm really helping people just gently explore what they might be missing in all of this."
While her family practised Christianity, Pippa explained she wasn't raised in an overly religious household.
The youngest sibling in a set of four, Pippa's faith was left up to her to choose. She admitted that religion was not something she considered much until her university days.
Pippa shared: "I kind of fell into it.
"My mum is Christian, but my dad, who experienced strict Catholic upbringing, did not want to impose that on his children."
She reminisced about church visits during the festive seasons, saying, "We went to church at Christmas and Easter, so we knew what it was about and I quite liked it."
Growing up in a small village, Pippa described the church scene as unsuitable for youngsters: "But I grew up in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere where just kids didn't go to church because it was really boring."
Her exploration into her faith deepened during her time at university, leading Pippa to question the significance of attending church and being a Christian.
A history graduate, Pippa recalled a pivotal moment: "There was a very clear conversation - it was like a lightning bolt moment."
Reflecting on a pivotal conversation with her boyfriend, Pippa recounted, "I was walking on a road with my boyfriend at the time. I did history but I didn't want to go into teaching or archiving or anything like that and I was like 'I don't know what to do with this degree'.
"We talked about all the sensible options, and then we kind of got into the ridiculous ones - plumber, engineer, astronaut.
"I was like 'oh, I could be a vicar'. And there was this really weird thing where I thought 'why did I say that?' But after that, I just couldn't shake it."
Pippa, who had no clue about the daily responsibilities of a vicar, dived headfirst into her calling and embarked on theological training.
She observed: "The amazing thing about this job is that you can make it what the community needs it to be, what you're good at, what needs to be tended to.
"So being a priest does look very different on very different people and it does get shaped a lot by where you are.
"But I'm also aware the Church of England is going through a time of change. It's becoming a bigger and bigger role and it's changing as we go, which is quite exciting but also a bit fast-paced."
Pippa undertakes a myriad of tasks, form officiating at wakes and weddings to hospital chaplaincy duties and instructing youngsters in ethics.
Her rounds include care home visits and seeing parishioners too infirm to venture out. Crafting sermons occupies a significant portion of her schedule, too.
Despite her TikTok's impactful presence, Pippa is conscious that it doesn't supplant her physical ministry at the church.
Pippa expressed her concern: "This is where I do get a bit concerned with the TikTok stuff: I'm very aware social media is not a replacement for church.
"This is a really interesting bit in academic theology right now asking 'can you have virtual religion?'".
"For me, I come down quite hard on the no - because I think there is something about human communities that have to be face-to-face. I don't want to encourage people to stay online."