Welsh Journals

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THE SEARCH FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY IN WALES: THE BEGINNINGS Noel A. Davies According to Kenneth O. Morgan, the century to 1980, the latter half of which was a formative period in shaping the contemporary ecumenical movement in Wales, was characterized by confusing changes: The land underwent successively an upsurge of political and economic advance, and of patriotic consciousness; a shattering collapse in its economic fabric with social despair and new cultural tension; and finally, a period of economic rehabilitation and renewal in which awareness of nationhood flourished anew The characteristic features of Welsh society were surviving with difficulty in a world which was rapidly leaving old landmarks behind.2 These social developments had enormous influence on the life and work of the churches and the Council of churches for Wales. During its life (1956-1990) there was a diminution in church membership, a reduction in the churches' influence and an increasing difficulty with maintaining a church structure inherited from the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth.3 But the ecumenical movement and the struggle to root the ecumenical vision in the soil of Wales has been an attempt to renew the churches by ensuring that Wales has its own self- supporting and independent inter-church structure, which would enable the churches to face the challenge of their times. The Council of Churches for Wales was inaugurated in Swansea on 24 May 1956, following detailed discussions by the churches and denominations in Wales over a period of two years or so. The Council was brought to an end on the last day of August 1990 when its successor, Cytûn: Churches Together in Wales was established in a special service in Aberystwyth on 1 September 1990. This article explores one of the key commitments of the Council, especially in its early years, and evaluates 2 Kenneth O. Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880-1980, University of Wales Press, 1981, p. 412. 3 For an analysis of Christian Religion and Society in Wales during the Twentieth Century, see The Span of the Cross, D. Densil Morgan, University of Wales Press, 1999.