As the Church in Wales prepares to celebrate its centenary, David Lee tells the story of how it came about.
When the Liberal Party swept into power at the General Election in 1911 it was determined to achieve its long-held policy to destroy the Anglican Church in Wales. The method to be used was by an Act of Parliament which would separate the four Welsh dioceses from the Established Church of England – this was called Disestablishment. And to confiscate the property and financial assets of the Church – this was called Disendowment. However its attempts to do this were prevented at that time by the Conservative peers and the bishops in the House of Lords.
The outbreak of war in 1914 changed the situation. The Parliament Act of that year provided that at a time of national emergency a Bill which has passed through the House of Commons could be presented to the King for Royal Assent without going through the House of Lords. This gave the government the opportunity it wanted and the Welsh Church Act became law. Had it been put into effect then it would have effectively shut down the Church in Wales as a viable institution – its assets lost and its ministry unsustainable. But that didn’t happen. The Suspensory Act 1914 provided that the Welsh Church Act should not take effect until after the war. This gave the defenders of the Church the opportunity to work for a softening of the Act if it could not get it repealed.
While the battles raged on the Western front another battle was being waged in the corridors of power at Westminster. It was a time of secret negotiations, of promises made and promises broken, of deals and compromises, and much tension and anxiety. At this time the young men of Wales were being called to the colours and sent to the trenches of the Western front. There they had a sense of brotherhood which overcame all social prejudices and attitudes. Chapel boys and church boys found themselves to be comrades in arms against a terrible enemy. The religious disputes at home faded into insignificance. Many of the letters which were sent home from the front reflected a changing attitude towards the Established Church. Another factor here was the recognition of the heroic pastoral work of military chaplains like ‘Woodbine Willy’, most of whom were priests of the Church of England. Meanwhile at home there was a change of heart among the Nonconformist churches, who were shocked to learn that the millions of pounds to be taken from the Church in Wales was to be given for secular rather than religious uses.
This change of mood affected the attitude of the public in Wales and especially members of the Nonconformist churches and their leaders who had previously been supporters of the policy of the Liberal Party. It also influenced the Welsh members of parliament and made possible the Welsh Church Amending Act of 1919. The Liberals resisted this change as long as possible, but by then as they were in a coalition government with the Conservative Party their position was not so strong and they finally gave way. So when the Welsh Church Act was eventually put into effect in 1920 the church was disestablished but, except for all the assets it had acquired before 1662, much had been saved amounting to an income of £48,000 a year.
The Welsh Church Act said nothing about the future role of the four Welsh dioceses after disestablishment. The Church in Wales, as we now have it, was the creation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, who released the Welsh bishops from their oaths of obedience and put in motion the consultations which resulted in the creation of the Church in Wales as an independent self-governing province of the world-wide Anglican Communion of Churches. The Church in Wales came into existence on 1st April 1920 with the completion of the Welsh Church Act of 1914 and the Amendment Act of 1919. On 1st June 1920 the great and good of the land assembled at St Asaph Cathedral to witness the Archbishop of Canterbury installing Bishop Alfred Edwards as the first Archbishop of Wales.
David Lee was the industrial chaplain of the Abbey Steelworks, Port Talbot, from 1960 to 1970. He became the Rector of Merthyr Tydfil from 1970 to 1991. He was appointed Archdeacon of Llandaff and retired in 1997. He has been a supporter of the SOF network since reading Don Cupitt’s book in 1984.