Welsh Journals

specialist with a sense of vocation, to add high purpose and devotion to his qualifications like so many others in the varied walks of life, and hon- estly concerned with promotion if chances come his way. If he serves his church to the measure of his ability, he is completing the terms of the con- tract. Indeed, if he is energetically proficient, the demands of his church and denomination, with their multifarious committees and conferences, may be so great as to render the catholicity of interest and service of his predecessor beyond the power of his physical attainments. His church and denomination are over-loaded with "prob- lems" and he must address himself to them,-the language problem, the Sunday morning and weekly service problems, the Sunday School prob- lem, the young people's problem, the social prob- lem, the theological problem, etc., ad nauseam. Small wonder that his church has learned to re- gard him as its full time officer and to disapprove too wide a range of extraneous activities. Church work, much as school work in the teacher's life, has claimed him slavishly for its own. Accord- ing to the measure of his conscience and abilities he bows his powers to bring an inefficient organ- isation up to date, and the task frequently proves so great that, apart from existing for itself, the machine is not put to a widely social use. Congregations on the whole, are smaller and less fervent. The most obvious loss in many places has been in male membership, for women frequently are in a large majority. In one church, at least, the proportion of women mem- bers to men is as high as four to one, and it naturally follows that the initiative and control in such churches are steadily slipping into the hands of the women folk. Cases are not wanting where the modernisation of church equipment, e.g. indiv- idual communion service, electric light and cen- tral heating, has been achieved by women mem- bers, while the men have struggled to maintain the old services. Here and there the crisis may not be so keenly felt. The presence of a power- ful personality may invigorate obsolete theological formulae in one district. Many people in indus- trial centres may find satisfaction in Pentecostal obscurantism. Attractive advertisement and "catchy" subjects may stimulate popularity in other places. Exclusive assemblies, by sheer mass momentum may be enthusiastic, and conspire to exploit methods that have been successfully ap- plied by "worldly" organisations-but all is not well even in comparison with a generation ago. Secularism has set in. Religiously, we are in the condition of pre-eighteenth century days, for the number of men and women who find that churches and chapels have little meaning for them has steadily increased. Old auth- oritarian gospels of varying kinds and new enlightened personal interpretations alike seem to appeal to relatively few. Statistically the decline has come. In principle, there is no difference between the general cultural condition of these areas and their religious plight. Bewilderment and suspense pre- vail to a gerater extent than they did a genera- tion ago. Even at that time the cleavage between the Welsh and Anglo-Saxon traditional cultures and languages was deep.. Both were virile, one alertly on the defence and the other in the full vigour of novelty and public recognition. Pat- riotic Welshmen were zealously resisting attempts to relegate their language to a permanent condi- tion of inferiority; plenty of the more genteel folk were satisfied with its prospective elimination, while, apparently, the great majority of the pop- ulation was sublimely indifferent to its "cultural" destiny. For the adults of any township, there were Welsh societies, eisteddfodau occasionally, and "penny readings" every week, together with choral societies of no mean quality. The Y.M.C.A. was making its tentative overtures to the mining valleys but, night school and the provisions of Eng- lish churches apart, voluntary societies of a cultural character were not an integral part of the life of the English element of the population. Formal edu- cational facilities were growing apace and new school buildings were literally springing up. The comprehensive day school had given place to more commodious buildings that provided for infants, boys, and girls apart, while higher elementary and intermediate schools were expanding with the ad- ditional scholarship provision. The days when a B.A. might expect the social deference due to a man of genius were quickly passing, while certi- ficated teachers were becoming as numerous as peas in pods. This work was, of course, just a part of the English system of education, with the exception that provision was made in many schools for one hour per week in an extra subject- Welsh--even in those days a bugbear to many teachers. Today one misses the old vigour of the native culture and, in despair of the reformation of the schools and even of the ultimate prospects of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, its earnest champions are seek- ing the sanctions of political authority. Statistics are alarming them, for the name of Welshmen who cannot hold converse with their grandfathers is legion. In the meanwhile, be it admitted that, Huw Menai, Rhys Davies and a few others apart, not much of character, worth, or uniqueness has yet been bred in English. Formal educational fac- ilities are greater than ever, but by today, the pro- fessional demand for their products is diminish- ing. The mines do not want the youths, neither