The head of Egypt's Coptic Church has shut down his Facebook page, saying he has quit the site as it's a "waste of time".

Pope Tawadros II's decision comes after the church ordered monks off social media, giving them a month to "voluntarily renounce these behaviours that are not true to monastic life".

In his final Facebook post, Tawadros II said that using social media is a "waste of time, age and life".

"That is why I am shutting down my personal Facebook page and I salute all my brothers and sons who have followed the instructions of my sacred church," he said.

Image: Pope Tawadros II (R) releases a dove next to Catholic Pope Francis

Several senior Coptic Church officials have followed Tawadros' example and shut down their Facebook pages.


Tawadros became the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in 2012, and has not been active on Facebook since he opened his page in 2009, according to Egyptian media.

Coptic Christians make up around 10% of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population of 100 million.

They are an ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who primarily inhabit the area of modern Egypt. They are also the largest Christian adherent group to reside in Sudan and Libya.

In recent days, the church also announced it would stop accepting new monks for a year after the mysterious death of a bishop at a monastery northwest of Cairo.

Egyptian police are continuing their investigation into the possible murder of Bishop Epiphanius - a 68-year-old abbot of Saint Macarius monastery in Wadi el-Natrun - who was found with head injuries last Sunday.