The Welsh Church Act 1914 ( 4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 91) is an act of Parliament under which the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

was separated and disestablished in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

, leading to the creation of the

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

. The Act had long been demanded by the Nonconformist community in Wales, which composed the majority of the population and which resented paying taxes to the Church of England. It was sponsored by the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

(a stronghold of the Nonconformists) and opposed by the Conservative Party (a stronghold of the Anglicans).

History

The Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 was significant landmark legislation which introduced a religious legal difference to Wales. Welsh university colleges were formed in Cardiff and Bangor in 1883–84 and Welsh issues were prominent in the parliament of 1886–92. The introduction of the Welsh land commission of 1892 and the formation of the University of Wales in 1893 were driven by Welsh Liberals, supported by Welsh Liberal

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...

. Prime Minister

William Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he was Prime Minister ...

also later became more supportive and voted in favour of

disestablishment The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular s ...

. The two men contributed to Welsh disestablishment and acknowledged the Welsh national consciousness. After 1886 the sentiment of

Cymru Fydd The Cymru Fydd (The Wales to Come; ) movement was founded in 1886 by some of the London and Liverpool Welsh. Some of its main leaders included David Lloyd George (later Prime Minister), J. E. Lloyd, O. M. Edwards, T. E. Ellis (leader, MP for ...

developed, with more politicians moving in view towards a Welsh home rule similar to

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

's, including T. E. Ellis, who also supported disestablishment as a return of religion in Wales to the native order. Whilst the Irish nationalist movement focused on home rule, the Welsh movement focused on disestablishment. The Rosebery government eventually gave in to pressures from Welsh Liberals and Cymru Fydd, and introduced a Welsh Disestablishment Bill 1894. This was rejected; it was followed by another Bill in 1909 which was also rejected. Another Bill was introduced in 1912, and despite rejection from the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

the Bill was passed in 1914 after the Parliament Act allowed overriding of the Lords. A 70-year continuous campaign for Welsh disestablishment culminated in the passing of the Welsh Church Act in 1914; it came into force in 1920, having been delayed by the First World War. The campaign was motivated by a desire for freedom of religious expression as well as legal and civil equality for

Welsh nonconformity Nonconformity was a major religious movement in Wales from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The Welsh Methodist revival of the 18th century was one of the most significant religious and social movements in the modern history of Wales. The revival ...

. The matter also became associated with a wider movement for the recognition of the

Welsh national identity The culture of Wales encompasses the Welsh language, customs, Traditional festival days of Wales, festivals, Music of Wales, music, Welsh art, art, Welsh cuisine, cuisine, Welsh mythology, mythology, History of Wales, history, and Politics of ...

, Welsh distinctiveness and culture and the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

. Although Welsh Liberals were divided on the issue of Welsh home rule in the 1890s, they were united on disestablishment in Wales. The act was controversial, and was passed by the House of Commons under the provisions of the

Parliament Act 1911 The Parliament Act 1911 ( 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 13) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is constitutionally important and partly governs the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two Houses of Parl ...

, which reduced the power of the House of Lords to block legislation. The main financial terms were that the church no longer received

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

money (a land tax), but kept all its churches, properties and

glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

s. The

Welsh Church Commissioners The Welsh Church Commissioners (whose full official title was "The Commissioners for Church Temporalities in Wales") were set up by the Welsh Church Act 1914 to deal with the disendowment of the Church of England in Wales, as part of its disestablis ...

were set up by the act to identify affected assets and oversee their transfer. The act was politically and historically significant as one of the first pieces of legislation to apply solely to Wales (and

) as opposed to the wider legal entity of

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

. Owing to the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the act was given

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 18 September simultaneously with another controversial bill, the

Government of Ireland Act 1914 The Government of Ireland Act 1914 ( 4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 90), also known as the Home Rule Act, and before enactment as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide home rule (self-gover ...

. In addition, royal assent was given to the

Suspensory Act 1914 The Suspensory Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5 c. 88) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which suspended the coming into force of two other Acts: the Welsh Church Act 1914 (for the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales), ...

which provided that the two other acts would not

come into force In law, coming into force or entry into force (also called commencement) is the process by which legislation, regulations, treaties and other legal instruments come to have legal force and effect. The term is closely related to the date of this ...

for the remainder of the war. On 31 March 1920 most of the Welsh part of the Church of England became the

, an independent

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

, with (originally) four

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

s led by the

Archbishop of Wales The post of Archbishop of Wales () was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and disestablished. The four historic Welsh dioceses had previously formed part of the Province of Canterbury, and so came ...

. However, 18 out of 19 church parishes which spanned the Welsh/English border overwhelmingly voted in individual referendums to remain within the Church of England.The First Report of the Commissioners for Church Temporalities in Wales (1914–16) Cd 8166, p 5; Second Report of the Commissioners for Church Temporalities in Wales (1917–18) Cd 8472 viii 93, p 4. The Welsh Church Act 1914 and the Government of Ireland Act 1914 were (together with the

Parliament Act 1949 The Parliament Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 103) is an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It reduced the power of the House of Lords to delay certain types of legislation – specifically p ...

) the only acts enacted by invoking the

until the War Crimes Act in 1991.

Responses

English author

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English author, philosopher, Christian apologist, journalist and magazine editor, and literary and art critic. Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brow ...

, an Anglican who would be received into the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 1922, ridiculed the passion that was generated by the bill in his 1915 poem '' Antichrist, or the Reunion of Christendom: An Ode'', repeatedly addressing F. E. Smith, one of the chief opponents of the act.

Analysis

An analysis published by Wales

Humanists Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" has ...

at an event in the

Senedd The Senedd ( ; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, Its role is to scrutinise the Welsh Government and legislate on devolve ...

in 2020, reflecting on 100 years of disestablishment in Wales, identified the Welsh Church Act 1914 as a critical component in the development of Wales's distinctively pluralistic and secular approaches to governance in the era of

devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territori ...

History

Responses

Analysis

See also

References

Further reading