Christianity in Wales

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Representing 43.6% of the Welsh population in 2021, Christianity is the largest religion in Wales. Wales has a strong tradition of nonconformism, particularly Methodism. From 1534 until 1920 the

established church was the Church of England, but this was disestablished in Wales in 1920, becoming the still Anglican but self-governing Church in Wales
.

Most adherents to organised religion in Wales follow the Anglican Church in Wales, Presbyterian Church of Wales, Baptist Union of Wales, Union of Welsh Independents, Methodist, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

History

Celtic origins

Main article: Celtic Christianity

Nearly 200 years before

Chi-Rho symbol found at the nearby town of Venta Silurum (Caerwent). By the end of the 4th century, Christianity became the sole official religion of the Roman Empire.[2] Wales was the birthplace of Pelagius, noted theologian and contemporary of Augustine of Hippo.[3]

As the

Wales withdrew in the early 5th century, invading tribes including the Angles and Saxons, who later became the Anglo-Saxons, were unable to make inroads except possibly along the Severn Valley as far as Llanidloes. However they gradually conquered eastern and southern Britain, which would eventually become known as England. The writer Gildas drew sharp contrasts between the Christian Welsh at this time and the pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders, although at the same time lamenting the shortcomings of Welsh Christians.[3]

St. Meilig's Cross, Llowes, Powys. One side of this 'Celtic cross' was carved in the 7th century and the other side was carved in the 11th century.

Emergence and Reformation

12c St Cwyfan's Church, Llangwyfan
Eglwys-y-Grog, a 13th-century church in Mwnt, Ceredigion

The age of

Teilo. This was the period when the Welsh developed a shared national identity, arising from their language and religious beliefs.[4][2] Welsh bishops refused to co-operate with Augustine's mission to the Anglo-Saxons. However, a combination of Celtic Christianity's reconciliation with Rome and conquest of Wales by Edward I meant that from the Middle Ages until 1920, the Welsh dioceses were part of the Province of Canterbury – in communion with Rome until the Reformation
.

This participation in the

liturgical language
and vehicle for worship. This had a significant role in its continued use as a means of everyday communication and as a literary language down to the present day despite the increasing use of English.

Bishop Richard Davies and dissident Protestant cleric

Articles of Religion
of the Church of England:

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have publick Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people.[7]

In 1766, the churchwardens of the parish of St Beuno, Trefdraeth on Anglesey, supported by the Cymmrodorion, began a test case against the English clergyman Thomas Bowles, who could not conduct services in Welsh and whose attempt to do so had ended in ridicule.[6] In its verdict in 1773 the Court of Arches refused to deprive Dr Bowles of his living, but did lay down the principle that clergy should be examined and found proficient in Welsh in order to be considered for Welsh-speaking parishes.[6]

Nonconformity and revivals

Main article: Nonconformity in Wales

Calvinistic Methodist Church in 1823 (later renamed the Presbyterian Church of Wales in 1923).[8]

The Welsh Methodist revival also had an influence on the older

Congregationalists – who in turn also experienced growth and renewal. As a result, by the middle of the nineteenth century, Wales was predominantly a nonconformist
country.

The

1904–1905 Welsh Revival was the largest full scale Christian revival
in Wales in the 20th century. It is believed that at least 100,000 people became Christians during the 1904–1905 revival, but despite this it did not put a stop to the gradual decline of Christianity in Wales, only holding it back slightly.

Disestablishment

The

established church in Wales. In 2008, the Church in Wales narrowly rejected a proposal to allow women to become bishops.[9]

Catholicism

Catholics are served by the Ecclesiastical Province of Cardiff, which exists out of the Archdiocese of Cardiff, the Diocese of Menevia and the Diocese of Wrexham. The bishops of these dioceses are part of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. In total, the three dioceses counted 209,451 Catholics on a population of 3,112,451 inhabitants, equalling to a percentage of 6.7% Catholics. The three dioceses have 172 priests and 34 permanent deacons, 75 male religious and 267 female religious, and a total of 154 parishes as of 2016 (2017 for the diocese of Wrexham).[10] However, the province is not completely equal to Wales, as the Archdiocese of Cardiff also covers Herefordshire, in England.

Sabbatarianism

The Sabbatarian temperance movement was strong among the Welsh in the Victorian period and the early twentieth century, the sale of alcohol being prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 – the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be wet or dry on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went wet immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet; since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums.[citation needed]

Saints

Main article: List of Welsh saints
A monastic community was founded by Saint David at what is now St Davids. The present building of St Davids Cathedral was started in 1181.

Saint David is the patron saint of Wales.

Wales is particularly noted for

St Michael (Mihangel); Llanarmon – St. Garmon. Because of the relatively small number of saints' names used, places names are often suffixed by their locality e.g. Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, Llanfihangel y Creuddyn
, Llanfihangel-y-Pennant.

Demographics

Christians in Wales by Ethnic group and Nationality
Ethnic group 2001 2011 2021
Number % Number % Number %
White 2,069,815 99.16 1,722,299 97.67 1,302,740 96.16
– British 2,029,807 97.25 1,671,285 94.78 1,240,964 91.60
– Irish 14,710 0.70 10,647 0.60 8,696 0.64
– Irish Traveller 1,794 0.10 2,218 0.16
– Roma 1,217 0.09
– Other White 25,298 1.21 38,673 2.19 49,645 3.66
Mixed 8,924 0.43 13,521 0.77 15,958 1.18
– White and Asian 2,206 0.11 3,192 0.18 3,883 0.29
– White and Black Caribbean 3,526 0.17 5,198 0.29 4,562 0.34
– White and Black African 1,306 0.06 2,248 0.13 3,453 0.25
– Other Mixed 1,886 0.09 2,883 0.16 4,060 0.30
Asian 2,938 0.14 14,220 0.81 15,861 1.17
–
Indian
 776 0.04 4,192 0.24 5,247 0.39
– Chinese 1,226 0.06 2,476 0.14 2,267 0.17
–
Pakistani
 373 0.02 390 0.02 374 0.03
–
Bangladeshi
 63 <0.01 172 0.01 101 0.01
– Other Asian 500 0.02 6,990 0.40 7,872 0.58
Black 3,842 0.18 10,808 0.61 15,390 1.14
– Caribbean 1,662 0.08 2,513 0.14 2,260 0.17
– African 1,810 0.09 7,406 0.42 10,864 0.80
– Other Black 370 0.02 889 0.05 2,266 0.17
Other| 1,723 0.08 2,351 0.13 4,824 0.36
–
Arab
 683 0.04 393 0.03
– Other Ethnic group 1,723 0.08 1,668 0.09 4,431 0.33
TOTAL 2,087,242 100.0 1,763,299 100.0 1,354,773 100.0

See also

References

  1. ^ "Silures". HistoryFiles.
  2. ^ a b "The Age of the Saints". BBC Wales.
  3. ^ a b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Welsh Church" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  4. ^ Lloyd, J.E. (1912). A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest. Vol. 1. London: Longman, Green, & Co. pp. 143–159.
  5. ^ Morgan, D. Densil (2009). "Calvinism in Wales: c.1590-1909". Welsh Journal of Religious History. 4: 22–36.
  6. ^ a b c The Cymmrodorion (1773). The Depositions, Arguments and Judgement in the Cause of the Church-Wardens of Trefdraeth, In the County of Anglesea, against Dr. Bowles; adjudged by the Worshipful G. Hay, L.L.D. Dean of the Arches: Instituted To Remedy the Grievance of preferring Persons Unacquainted with the British Language, to Livings in Wales. London: William Harris. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Articles of Religion". The Book of Common Prayer. London and Cambridge: SPCK and Cambridge University Press. p. 621.
  8. ^ Vickers, John A. (ed.). "Welsh Calvinistic Methodism (or Presbyterian Church of Wales)". dmbi.online. DMBI: A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  9. ^ "Church rejects women bishops bill". BBC News. 2 April 2008.
  10. ^ "Archdiocese of Cardiff". Catholic Hierarchy.
  11. ^ Soft mutation changes the initial /m/ to /v/, spelled ⟨f⟩ in Welsh.