Welsh Journals

JOHN WESLEY IN NORTH WALES By Professor R. T. JENRINS, M.A. D.Litt., University College of North Walcs, Bangor í T is right that I should begin by very heartily congratu- lating my friends among you who have had the vision to found this Historical Society. There are now five connexional Historical Societies in Wales, and I take pride in being a member of all five-if indeed one has any right to take pride in the performance of what is the merest duty (and should be the obvious pleasure) of a student of religious history. Next, may I thank you for the honour which you have done me in inviting me to address your first meeting ? For I am not one of you There was a time when I called myself a Methodist," prudently prefixing, for official purposes, the word Calvmistic." But you, for reasons which I shall not be so ill-mannered as to criticise, have seen fit to adopt for your Church the name Method- ist," simpliciter and we poor Welsh Calvinistic Methodists were left to wander nameless. To be sure (for something had to be done about it), we did find some sort of a name. There was the old name Presbyterian," lying idle (in Wales), and rather loosely fitting us as a descriptive term, though grossly unhistorical so we took it. But mark you, while this is all very well as' long as we are speaking English, it does not quite work in Welsh. To the three- quarters-of-a-million of my fellow-counfcrs'men who speak Welsh, I fear that you are still Wesleyans," and that we are the Methodists A friend of mine, an ardent Wesleyan (I beg your pardon-an ardent Methodist) settled in a South Wales village. He ran across an eminent minister of yours, who kindly inquired after his spiritual state are you able," said he, "to attend a Methodist chapel ? My friend, stung to the quick by this seeming imputation of disloyalty, answered Good heavens, no, -I go to our chapel." You see how difficult it is to forget age-old names. However, I suppose I must here bow to your fiat, and call myself a Presbyterian. It was really most An Address delivered on October 24th, 1946, at Llanidloes, at the first meeting of the Historical Socicty of tiie Methodist Church in Wales. It was delivered in English at the request of the Llan- idloes audience, and for this reason, and in view of its general interest to our English members, it is printed in English rather than in Welsh. The section dealing with John Wesley's activities in Anglesey is an addition to the address.-Ed.