Christianity is the largest
religion in
Wales. Until 1920 the
established church was
Anglican, although Wales has a strong tradition of
nonconformism and
Methodism.
Most adherents to organised religion in Wales follow the
Church in Wales or other
Christian denominations such as the
Presbyterian Church of Wales,
Catholicism,
Baptist and
Congregational churches, and
Eastern Orthodoxy. Other religions Welsh people may be affiliated with include
Buddhism,
Hinduism,
Judaism,
Islam, and
Sikhism, with most non-Christian Welsh people found in
Cardiff.
Christian denominations in the UKChristianity arrived in
Wales during the
Roman occupation, but was initially suppressed. The first Christian
martyrs in Wales,
Julius and Aaron, were killed at
Isca Augusta (
Caerleon) in south Wales in about 304 AD. The earliest Christian object found in Wales is a vessel with a
Chi-Rho symbol found at the nearby town of
Venta Silurum (
Caerwent). By the end of the 4th century Christianity became the sole official religion of the Roman Empire. [1]
Roman withdrawal
As the
Roman legions garrisoned in
Wales withdrew in the early 5th century, invading tribes including the
Angles and
Saxons, who later became the
Anglo-Saxon English, were unable to make inroads except possibly along the
Severn Valley as far as
Llanidloes. However they gradually conquered eastern and southern Britain (which then became
England), thus leaving Wales cut off from her Celtic relations in
Scotland,
Cornwall and
Cumbria. The writer
Gildas drew sharp contrasts between the Christian Welsh at this time and the pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders.
Age of the Saints
The "age of the saints" (approximately 500-700 AD) was marked by the establishment of monastic settlements throughout the country, by religious leaders such as
Saint David,
Illtud and
Teilo. This was the period when the
Welsh developed a shared national identity, arising from their
language and religious beliefs. [2] [1]
Roman Catholicism
The Welsh refused to co-operate with
Augustine of Canterbury's mission to the Anglo-Saxons. However, a combination of
Celtic Christianity's reconciliation with Rome and English conquest of Wales meant that from the
Middle Ages until 1920, the Welsh dioceses were part of the
Province of Canterbury -- in communion with the See of Rome until the
Reformation.
Anglicanism
This participation in the
Province of Canterbury continued afterwards as part of the Church of England. From the time of
Henry VIII, Wales had been absorbed into England as a legal entity and the
Established Church in Wales was the Church of England.
Although some of the scriptures and a number of apocryphal books had been translated in the Middle Ages, the first translation of the modern
Bible into
Welsh was the
New Testament translation of
William Salesbury in 1567, closely followed by
William Morgan's translation of the whole Bible in 1588. The translation of the Bible into Welsh was important to the survival of the Welsh language, the native tongue of the vast majority of the Welsh, which had effectively been banned from official use by the
Acts of Union (1536-43). It had the effect, along with the Welsh translation of the
Book of Common Prayer, of conferring status on Welsh as a
liturgical language and vehicle for worship. This had a significant role in its continued use as a means of everyday communication and as a literary language down to the present day despite the pressure of English.
Methodism and Nonconformism
The
Welsh Methodist revival of the 18th century was one of the most significant religious and social movements in the history of Wales. The revival began within the
Church of England in Wales and at the beginning remained as a group within it, but the Welsh revival differed from the Methodist revival in England in that its theology was
Calvinist rather than
Arminian. Welsh Methodists gradually built up their own networks, structures, and even meeting houses (or chapels), which led eventually to the secession of 1811 and the formal establishment of the Calvinistic Methodist
Presbyterian church of Wales in 1823.
The Welsh Methodist revival also had an influence on the older
nonconformist churches, or
dissenters — the
Baptists and the
Congregationalists — who in turn also experienced growth and renewal. As a result, by the middle of the nineteenth century, Wales was a predominantly a
nonconformist country.
Welsh Revival
The
1904-1905 Welsh Revival was the largest full scale Christian
Revival of Wales of the 20th century. It is believed that at least 100,000 people became Christians during the 1904-1905 revival, but despite this it did not put a stop to the gradual decline of Christianity in Wales, only holding it back slightly.
Disestablishment
The
Welsh Church Act 1914 provided for the separation of the four dioceses of the
Church of England located in Wales (known collectively as the
Church in Wales) from the rest of the Church, and for the simultaneous
disestablishment of the Church. The Act came into operation in 1920. Since then there has been no
established church in Wales. In 2008, the Anglican Church in Wales narrowly rejected a proposal to allow women to become bishops. [3]
Sabbatarianism
The
Sabbatarian temperance movement was historically strong among the Welsh, the sale of alcohol being prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the
Sunday Closing Act of 1881 - the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold
referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet, since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums.
Saints
A monastic community was founded by Saint David at what is now
St David's. The present building of
St David's Cathedral was started in 1181.
Saint David is the
patron saint of Wales.
Wales is particularly noted for
naming places after either local or well-known
saints - all places beginning in Llan e.g. Llanbedr -
St Peter (Pedr); Llanfair -
St Mary (Mair); Llanfihangel -
St Michael (Mihangel); Llanarmon -
St. Garmon. Because of the relatively small number of saints' names used, places names are often suffixed by their locality e.g. Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr,
Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, Llanfihangel-y-Pennant.
Islam
The largest non-Christian faith in Wales is
Islam, with about 22,000 members in 2001 served by about 40 mosques.
The first Muslim community which permanently settled in Wales consisted of
Yemeni sailors who arrived in ports such as
Swansea shortly after 1900. The
first mosque in Britain is recorded as having been at 2 Glyn Rhondda Street,
Cardiff, in 1860 [4] .
In Wales most Muslims live in Cardiff (11,261, 3.7% of the population), but there are also significant numbers in
Newport (3,492) and
Swansea (2,167).
Judaism
Main article:
History of the Jews in WalesJudaism has quite a long history in Wales, with a Jewish community recorded in
Swansea from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the
South Wales coalfield were damaged by mobs. Since that time the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4,000 - 5,000 in 1913, has declined with only Cardiff retaining a sizeable Jewish population, of about 2,000 in the 2001 census.
Other faiths
See also:
Hinduism in WalesHinduism and
Buddhism each have about 5,000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county of
Ceredigion being the centre of Welsh Buddhism.
Govinda's temple & restaurant, run by the
Hare Krishnas in
Swansea, is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2000
Sikhs in Wales, with the first purpose-built
gurdwara opened in the
Riverside area of Cardiff in 1989. In 2001 some 7,000 people classified themselves as following "other religions" including a reconstructed form of
Druidism, which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of the
Gorsedd at the
National Eisteddfod of Wales).
5. Irreligion
Approximately one-sixth of the population, some 500,000 people, profess no religious faith.
Statistics
The
Roman Catholic Church (Eglwys Gatholig Rufeinig) and the
Church in Wales (Eglwys yng Nghymru) are the two largest churches in Wales, both of which have less than 5 % of the population as members. The next largest religious society is the
Presbyterian Church of Wales (Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru) with 34,819 (2004) members (slightly more than 1 % of the population), followed by the the
Union of Welsh Independents (Undeb yr Annibynwyr Cymraeg) and the
Baptist Union of Wales (Undeb Bedyddwyr Cymru) which each have about 1 % of the population as members.
The 2001 census showed that slightly less than 10% of the Welsh population are regular church- or chapel-goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 70% of the population see themselves as Christian in some way.
Religions in Wales, 2001
Religion Number %
Christianity2,087,242 71.9
No religion537,935 18.5
Islam21,739 0.7
Hinduism5,439 0.2
Sikhism2,015 0.1
Judaism2,256 0.1
Buddhism5,407 0.2
Any other religion
6,909 0.2
Religion not stated
234,143 8.1