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BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
18th annual edition
The View from the
Church in Wales
Alex Glanville
T
he Church
in Wales is a Province
of the Anglican Communion which
was dis-established from the Church
of England in 1920. It operates across Wales
through 923 parishes grouped into 490
benefices running 1,413 places of worship
(including six cathedrals). The organisation of
the Church in Wales is similar to the Church
of England but with six dioceses, each headed
by a bishop. However, the most fundamental
difference is that virtually all church buildings
are owned by a central trustee body, the
Representative Body of the Church in Wales.
The breadth of places of worship operated
by the Church in Wales is impressive, from
ancient medieval through the great Victorian
revival and to the present day. In many ways
this is not surprising given the fact that
Christianity has existed in Wales, along with
other Celtic nations, for considerably longer
than in England. The massive flowering of
non-conformity especially in Wales during
the 19th century has given rise to a popular
perception of chapels being the predominant
form of place of worship in Wales. The chapel
and Wales are synonymous to an extent that
many from outside Wales may be unaware that
an Anglican church even exists there at all.
The rise of non-conformity was the major
catalyst that brought about the dis-establishment
of the Church of England in Wales to form
the Church in Wales. A major factor within
that was the use of burial grounds which
were subject to some clearly discriminatory
policies by Anglican priests refusing the burial,
on spurious technicalities, of non-Anglican
parishioners. Certainly, David Lloyd George,
the lawyer involved in the famous Llanfrothen
case (over burial rights) was instrumental in the
Welsh Church Act of 1914 which paved the way
for the creation of the Church in Wales in 1920.
For a nation with such a strong oral
tradition, and with language (whether Welsh
or English) being of such central importance
to Welsh culture, the choice of Church
‘in’ Wales is highly significant. Nobody
would dare claim (in 1920 or now) that the
Anglican church is the Church ‘of ’ Wales.
The Church in Wales is the largest single
denomination in terms of places of worship
and regular worshippers but, taken together,
the non-conformist denominations would be
larger. The challenge the other denominations
face is the ability to speak with one voice, so
in this media age it tends to be the Church in
Wales that provides the voice for Christian
denominations in Wales. In writing this article
I am acutely aware that I can only give the
Church in Wales’ position and that there are
other denominations that should also be heard
to get a complete picture of Wales and its places
of worship. However, I think it is fair to say that
most of my comments will be common to all.
Monuments in the churchyard of St Brynach’s, Nevern, Pembrokeshire