Chapels, culture, and Christ: Ministry among Welsh speakers
Union Mission is actively partnering with Welsh-speaking pastors like Gwilym Tudur to strengthen church planting and revitalisation in Wales. Gwilym reflects on the state of Christianity in Wales in the light of the recent 2021 census results.
During the past two centuries of its long history, Wales (Welsh: Cymru) experienced a dramatic upheaval that changed its religious character.
According to a survey conducted in 1905, two out of every five Welsh people were church members (i.e. 743,361 out of the total population of 1,864,696), many in Welsh-speaking evangelical churches. However, just over a century later, more Welsh people identified as having ‘no religion’ (46.5%) than as ‘Christian’ (43.6%) in the 2021 Census. The same census named Caerphilly (56.7%), Blaenau Gwent (56.4%), and Rhondda Cynon Taff (56.2%) as the UK areas with the highest proportion of people saying they were not religious.
A nation once renowned for its missionary endeavours and its Calvinist hymns has, paradoxically, become one of Europe’s least ‘religious’ countries, in desperate need of mission and church planting to bring the lost to Christ.
In the summer of 2020, my wife, Alex, and I left Oxford to serve two churches in Ceredigion, west Wales. We decided to move because the harvest is great and the workers are few, especially among the 538,000 Welsh-speaking people. In Ceredigion, where 45.3% of the population speak Welsh (Welsh: Cymraeg), only a handful of pastors labour to make Christ known.
Therefore, by God’s grace, I became the pastor of two churches in the area, one in the university town of Aberystwyth and the other in the rural, agricultural village of Tal-y-bont. Both are independent Congregational churches associated with the evangelical ministry of Azariah Shadrach (1774–1844) in the nineteenth century and affiliated today with the Union of Welsh Independents.
Through our weekly services, evangelistic events, small groups, children’s Sunday School, and student ministry, we strive to reach our communities with the good news of Jesus crucified and risen. Through one-to-one conversations with friends and neighbours, we seek to ‘give an account of the hope that is [us]’ (1 Pt. 3:15). Originally from Timișoara, Romania, Alex is a cross-cultural missionary who has learnt Welsh to share the gospel with our community.
As a distinct mission field, ministry in Welsh-speaking Wales has specific challenges. One unique challenge is Christianity’s complicated link with culture and national identity. Although the gospel first came to Wales in AD 200 and was spread by missionaries such as Dyfrig and David (the Welsh patron saint), Protestant Christianity slowly transformed the country following the first translation of the Welsh Bible in 1588. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Wales experienced revival after revival, which saw thousands of people come to Christ and hundreds of new churches planted.
By the middle of the nineteenth century – when Welsh was the primary language spoken by the majority in Wales – Nonconformist Christianity had become a distinctive aspect of Welsh national identity. For many, being a chapel-going Congregationalist, Methodist, or Baptist was part of the ‘package’ of Welsh identity. The line between Christianity and culture had become very thin.
This complex link between Welsh culture and Protestant Christianity brings opportunities and difficulties. The advantages involve having gospel opportunities to speak at local schools and having new people join services (especially during Christmas and Easter) because of the cultural connection between communities and their chapels. Moreover, many Welsh speakers choose to have their weddings and funerals at local chapels, which is yet another occasion to share the gospel.
Nevertheless, the challenges involved are serious. The link blurs the definitive line between cultural religion and genuine faith in Christ. Some continue to identify as ‘Christian’ on the basis of culture, baptism, confirmation, or church membership rather than biblical faith in Jesus as Saviour.
However, as the latest statistics demonstrate, cultural Christianity is declining rapidly in Welsh-speaking Wales (especially among the younger generations). While it is sad to see Christianity’s moral influence on society diminish, this development will bring new opportunities for evangelism and mission among Welsh-speaking communities in the long term.
Welsh language ministry in Wales is challenging but crucial. Language is more than merely a communication system; it is a web that connects culture with history and self-identity with society. To reach the Welsh-speaking people effectively with the gospel, we must share about Jesus through the Welsh language and with a deep appreciation and understanding of Welsh culture. This is what Welsh-speaking evangelicals seek to do in their local communities.
Although the ground is hard, we rejoice at God’s work in our midst. We are thankful for the conversions we’ve witnessed over the past two decades, particularly among young people and university students. After all, it was only eleven years ago when the Lord saved me through reading the Bible at my church youth group in Cardiff.
God has also given Wales a new generation of young pastors and elders to minister throughout the country. Despite these great blessings, we need prayer and encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe. Welsh evangelicals are scattered throughout the land, Welsh-speaking churches are small and fragile, and Welsh pastors are often isolated and lonely in their ministry.
Furthermore, after the closure of the Welsh theological seminaries in the twentieth century, we need theological training tailored to our unique Welsh-speaking context and setting.
Although there are many Welsh-speaking communities without a single church to speak of Christ today, we know that God’s word is as powerful as it has always been. The same word that brought Wales to its knees in the nineteenth century is the word we preach from our pulpits today. We know that it shall not return to him empty but shall accomplish what he purposed (Isaiah 55:11): the salvation of sinners through his Son.
Please pray:
For unity and fellowship between Welsh-speaking evangelical ministers
For theological training that’s tailored to our unique context
That new people from our communities would come to faith in Christ
Will you give to enable us to support more gospel workers?