Report
presented to the Deanery Conference on Tuesday , September 17th
2013
A brief resume of how
we arrived at where we are on the Ecumenical Scene
Although there are indications in the New Testament and historical evidence thereafter of
division amongst Christians in the Early Church and in the following
centuries, the Church remained
officially united for the first 1000 years of its history. The Schism of 1054 brought about the separation of the
Church into an Eastern and Western Church, the first centred on Constantinople
and the second in Rome, known as the Latin Church which suffered another great
schism at the end of the fourteenth century with the election of rival popes. This
schism was later resolved.
The Reformation in sixteenth century Europe was a division
of the Church to rival that of 1054. The rise of the nation state meant a different kind of
religious reformation in different countries. In England (which by the 1536 Act
of Union included Wales) the Anglican Church of England was formed which
although part of the Protestant Reformation maintained its threefold ministry
of Bishop, Priest and Deacon. It was and remains both Catholic and Reformed.
Following the Elizabethan Settlement the Church of England became the
Established Church of England and Wales. In Scotland under the leadership of
John Knox Presbyterianism had become established and the Presbyterian Church of
Scotland (The Kirk) remains the established Church there.
The following centuries saw further breakaway from the
Church of England. The growth of Puritanism was very evident and many sought a
kind of worship beyond the establishment. The Act of Toleration in 1689 gave such permission to Baptists,
who rejected Infant Baptism in favour of
an adult believer’s Baptism, and Congregationalists who believed in the
authority of the local church/congregation as opposed to the central authority
of a Bishop. These so called Dissenters were still not permitted to hold
political office or enter the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Catholics
were deliberately excluded and had to wait until the nineteenth century for
their emancipation. The eighteenth century saw the rise of Methodism under the
Wesley brothers who never envisaged a breakaway from the C of E, and neither did the equivalent
reformers in Wales such as William Williams, Daniel Rowlands and Howell
Harries, whose vision was more of a Calvinistic Methodist Church which was a
Presbyterian model rather like Scotland.
So, coming into fairly modern times we have a variety of religious
traditions in Britain (I have not included Ireland’s story as this would
require much more space!). There was the established C of E, Presbyterianism,
Methodism, Baptists and Congregationalists as well as the un-emancipated Roman Catholic Church. The
nineteenth century so the advent of Pentecostalism and The Salvation Army and
the rediscovery of its Catholic heritage through the Oxford Movement in the
Church of England. In Wales all this mixture was further complicated by
language with denominations having English-speaking and Welsh-speaking parts.
Generally the Non Conformists were largely Welsh-speaking and the Cof E in
Wales largely English-speaking.
The twentieth century will be seen as a century of ecumenism
by historians. A conference in Edinburgh in 1910 began the Ecumenical Movement.
The word ecumenical or oecumenical means “of the whole world together”
“all-embracing” or “universal” which is also the meaning of “catholic”. The
movement sought to bring different traditions closer together and to cooperate
in mission. Unfortunately the missionary movements of the 19th
century had exported our Christian divisions to the rest of the world. As the
century progressed ecumenical bodies were founded: The World Council of
Churches, The British Council of Churches and in 1956 the Council of Churches
for Wales. In 1990 the Roman Catholic Church came into membership for the first
time in this country with the formation of the Council of Churches for Britain
and Ireland, and Cytun in Wales which included now all the main denominations
in Wales except the Welsh Baptist Union.
In 1975 five denominations in Wales entered into a Covenant
together to work and pray for visible unity. These denominations were:
The Presbyterian Church of Wales
The Methodist Church
The United Reformed Church
and a number of
Baptist Church, mainly in Cardiff
and Newport belong to the Baptist Union of GB.
The United Reformed Church (URC) had come about by a union
between English Presbyterians, Congregationalists and the Church of
Christ. Notably the Covenant did not
include the Welsh Baptists, the Welsh Congregationalists (Yr Annibynwyr)
nor the Roman Catholic Church.
Since 1975 much has been achieved on the journey to a
visible unity and there have been several disappointments. In 1981 a Holy
Communion/Cymun Bendigaid service was published and a revised modern version
was published in 2012 both of which were highly acclaimed. Several Local
Ecumenical Partnerships have been set up. Ministry and our understanding of it
is key to progress. Only one of the five (Church in Wales) is an Episcopal Church,
the other four being non-Episcopal (no bishops!) A way has to found in crossing
this barrier. Attempts were made in 1986 and in 1998 to address this issue but
did not succeed. All the while our mission to Wales is impeded by our divisions
and every denomination has seen a decline in stipendiary ministers and
congregations. On the positive side every denomination has re-discovered the
role of the laity in ministry, yet many areas, especially rural ones, bemoan
the loss of ordained leadership by full time ministers.
The Gathering/Y Cydgynulliad held in Aberystwyth in October
2012 is the latest attempt to bring us nearer to a uniting Church in the nation
of Wales. We have until the middle of 2014 to consider its proposals and our
responses will come to another Gathering in 2015. It is hoped each parish, deanery and diocese
in the Church in Wales will give the matter careful thought and prayer, as will
the various structures in our partner Churches.
