Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

"DISESTABLISHMENT IN WALES" Report of the Welsh Religious History Society Day Conference at St Asaph, 15 October 1994 The day conference at St Asaph on 15 October 1994 took as its theme "Disestablishment in Wales". The main paper was given by Professor R Tudur Jones who provided a wide-ranging survey which was at once eirenic in tone and forthright in expression. He ably summarised the complex of social, cultural and religious factors in nineteenth-century Wales which had combined, from a nonconformist perspective, to make "disestablishment" in Wales imperative. The gulf between "church" and "chapel" appeared to be deep, though he pointed out that the debate between both sides rarely took a specifically theological form. By the time legislation was finally passed, the disputants were repeating stale arguments. In the event, after so much passion had been spent, neither side could look back on the outcome with satisfaction. "Church" suffered a loss of status and deference and struggled to decide whether it now constituted simply one denomination among many or still constituted in some sense "official" religion in Wales. It was "free" but the freedom had not been sought. Disendowment was vindictive and its assets were used for non-Christian objectives. The bitterness the controversy engendered took time to resolve and some nonconformist leaders were not averse to rubbing salt into episcopal wounds. Yet, paradoxically, in the longer term, the outcome was more debilitating for "chapel" than "church". The campaign had given many nonconformists ministers a taste for politics and a liking for public prominence. They did not find it easy to return to pastoral and spiritual priorities. Moreover, the economic and social issues of inter-war Wales made the continuing echoes of old controversies seem irrelevant. In a survey which then came down to the present, Professor Jones highlighted the dramatic social changes which have occurred since 1945 and the "vicious attack" on Christianity which he discerned in so many areas of contemporary life. In sum, "Disestablishment" arguably helped to produce an outcome which neither side in the controversy envisaged and for which neither side had adequately prepared. And, despite the ecumenical developments on which the lecturer touched, the wounds of old battles have not fully healed. The ambiguities disclosed in the paper were explored in the lively discussion that followed. Perhaps the central