Category: Faith & Nonconformity
Writing on Welsh religious history, Nonconformity, revival, hymnody, chapel discipline and the relationship between faith and community life. These essays consider religion not only as belief, but as a major force in education, culture, authority and social identity.
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Sister Annunciata Briffa: A Forgotten Photograph and the Quiet Power of Religious Life
In an old family photograph, passed down without explanation, there sat a woman in religious habit. She was elderly, composed, dignified, with the softened features of age and…
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Ann Griffiths (1776–1805) of Dolwar Fach: The Mystic Voice of Welsh Methodism
Some reputations rest upon a lifetime of public work. That of Ann Griffiths rests upon seventy-three surviving stanzas, eight letters and the extraordinary memory of another woman. She…
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Thomas Charles of Bala (1755–1814): The Man Who Gave the Welsh Revival Permanence
Religious revivals are often remembered through their most dramatic moments. Crowds gather, preachers acquire an almost legendary reputation, and familiar communities appear briefly transformed by an intensity that…
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Trevor Owen Davies (1895–1966): From Welsh Farm Boy to Christ Church, Oxford
Trevor Owen Davies was born at Caeadda in the parish of Llanwrin on 20 November 1895. From this Montgomeryshire farm in the Llyfnant Valley, he travelled through the…
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William Williams Pantycelyn (1717–1791): The Voice of the Welsh Methodist Revival
The Welsh Methodist Revival was carried by more than preaching. Daniel Rowland drew immense congregations through the force of his sermons. Howell Harris organised converts into societies and…
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Howell Harris (1714–1773): The Making of Evangelical Wales
On 21 July 1773, Howell Harris died at Trefeca, the Breconshire home from which, nearly forty years earlier, he had begun carrying religious revival along the roads of…
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Daniel Rowland (1713–1790) of Llangeitho: Preaching, Revival and Religious Authority in Wales
In October 1790, Daniel Rowland was buried at Llangeitho, the Cardiganshire village that his preaching had transformed into one of the great religious centres of Wales. For decades,…
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John Cartwright Jones (1831–1875): Clerical Life, Family Ambition and the Glandwr Inheritance
John Cartwright Jones never became a bishop, a celebrated theologian or a national figure. His clerical career was spent in three comparatively small English parishes, and his life…
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The Uncrowned Kings: How the Preacher Ruled Victorian Wales
Picture a rural Welsh chapel on a Sunday evening in the later nineteenth century. Outside, rain moves across the hills and darkness has closed around the farms. Inside,…
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John Davies of Erglodd (1821–1887): “Apostol y Plant” and the Quiet Power of Faithful Service
John Davies of Erglodd was a farmer, Methodist elder, Sunday School teacher and Poor Law guardian remembered locally as an “Apostol y Plant”. His life reveals the quiet…