Presbyterian Church of Wales

Presbyterian Church of Wales, church that developed out of the Methodist revivals in Wales in the 18th century. The early leaders were Howel Harris, a layman who became an itinerant preacher after a religious experience of conversion in 1735, and Daniel Rowlands, an Anglican curate in Cardiganshire who experienced a similar conversion. After the two men met in 1737, they began cooperating in their work and were responsible for starting the religious revival in Wales and for founding Methodist associations. Eventually, however, doctrinal and personal differences between the two men led to the estrangement of Harris from the Welsh Methodists in 1750. He established a community, or “family,” at Trefeca, Brecknockshire, but he continued to be an itinerant preacher. He was reconciled with the Welsh Methodists after several years.

Unlike English Methodism, Welsh Methodism became Calvinistic rather than Arminian. The Welsh leaders sided with George Whitefield, an early leader in the English Methodist movement, in his dispute with John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, over the doctrine of free grace. Whitefield, a Calvinist, accepted the doctrine of predestination (i.e., that God predestines some persons to salvation and some to damnation), while Wesley accepted the Arminian doctrine that grace is freely available to all who will accept it. Ultimately, therefore, the Methodist movement in Wales developed into a Presbyterian rather than a Methodist church.

After the early leaders died, leadership of the Methodist movement in Wales passed to Thomas Charles, an ordained Anglican priest who had been influenced by the Methodist revival as a student. He never repudiated his own ordination, but, finally, circumstances led him to ordain nine laymen to the Methodist ministry in 1811. Thus, Methodism in Wales, which until that time had remained within the established Church of England in Wales, became a separate church.

Two synods or associations were formed for the new church, one for South Wales and one for North Wales. In 1823 a Confession of Faith was officially adopted, and in 1864 a General Assembly was formed to unite the two synods. The church government and the doctrine of the church are presbyterian. The majority of the worship services are held in the Welsh language.