A Call For The Church Of Wales To Repent From Spiritual Rot

The Church in Wales stands at a crossroads—though to say she stands would suggest stability. In truth, she drifts, unmoored from the anchors of Scripture, untethered from the compass of tradition, tossed upon the waves of cultural fashions. What was consecrated to be a beacon of light in a darkened land has been dimmed by the sulfurous fumes of compromise. Instead of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen, the Church has busied herself with proclaiming the latest cultural slogans dressed up in theological clothing.

As a Bishop in the Confessing Anglican Church, I do not write these words lightly. My calling is not to cast stones, but to guard the flock of Christ. Yet guarding sometimes requires exposing the wolves, even when they wear episcopal robes. The Church in Wales has abandoned her sacred trust—the proclamation of the Gospel and the teaching of the Apostles—for the shallow project of cultural accommodation. She has traded doctrine for relevance, holiness for inclusivity, and the Cross for consensus.

The tragedy is this: in pursuing acceptance, she has lost her soul. And in losing her soul, she is losing her people.

The Glorious Inheritance Forsaken

There was a time when the Church in Wales breathed deeply of apostolic faith. This land once rang with the voices of saints and martyrs, monks and missionaries, reformers and revivalists. The Church gave Wales her Bible through William Morgan, who rendered the Word of God into the Welsh tongue. The Church nurtured her people through faithful priests and bishops who taught Christ with conviction. The revivals which swept Wales in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries carried the power of the Spirit and turned whole communities toward holiness.

Anglicanism in Wales once held a balance of Scripture, tradition, and reason—ordered worship, faithful proclamation, and sacramental life. Parish churches stood at the heart of every village, their spires pointing heavenward as a constant reminder God was near, eternity pressed upon time, Christ ruled and reigned (Editor's note: Christ reigns forever).

But the inheritance has been squandered. The spires still stand, but they point now over empty pews and shuttered chancels. The Scriptures still exist, but they are twisted into affirmations of whatever society demands.

The Sacraments are still celebrated, but often emptied of their transcendent mystery, reduced to cultural theatre for baptisms, weddings, and funerals. The faith of the Fathers, the zeal of the Reformers, the fire of the Revivalists—forsaken, neglected, even mocked by those who now sit in the seats of ecclesiastical power.

The Theology of Accommodation

Where did this decline begin? It did not happen all at once. It happened step by step, compromise by compromise, until the centre could no longer hold.

The ordination of women, though heralded as a great triumph of progress, was in reality a capitulation—not merely to the question of who may stand at the altar, but to the deeper question of authority. For if the plain teaching of Scripture and the consistent witness of the Church catholic for two millennia can be overturned by a vote of synod, then nothing is safe. Doctrine ceases to be received; it becomes manufactured. The faith is no longer “once delivered to the saints” but endlessly reshaped to suit the fashions of the age.

Once that Rubicon was crossed, the floodgates opened. Questions of sexuality and marriage followed swiftly, and with them, the near-total abandonment of biblical teaching. Where Scripture speaks plainly, the Church in Wales speaks evasively. Where the tradition is clear, the bishops equivocate. Where the world demands approval, the Church hastens to comply.

The liturgy, once the heartbeat of Anglican life, has become in many places a bland reflection of secular therapy culture—homilies about kindness and acceptance, intercessions which sound like NGO manifestos, Eucharistic prayers drained of reverence. “Relevance” has become the new sacrament. “Inclusion” the new creed. “Progress” the new liturgy.

But inclusivity without repentance is not the Gospel. Diversity without discipleship is not the Body of Christ. Relevance without revelation is not the Church.

The Fruits of Compromise: A Dying Institution

And what fruit has all this borne? The statistics are undeniable. Membership has collapsed year on year. Baptisms and confirmations have dwindled to a trickle. Vocations to the priesthood are drying up. Whole parishes are shuttered, their once-lively churches reduced to heritage curiosities or sold off for redevelopment.

The more the Church in Wales has sought to conform to culture, the more irrelevant she has become. The people of Wales are not flocking to churches which preach nothing more than what the world already says. Why should they? If the Church is only echoing the BBC, why bother with the bother of Sunday worship? If the pulpit preaches nothing more than the Guardian editorial, why kneel at an altar when a Twitter feed will suffice?

Meanwhile, those Anglican provinces that have refused compromise—across Africa, Asia, and South America—are growing with astonishing vitality. Where the Gospel is preached with clarity, where doctrine is upheld with courage, the Spirit breathes life. The irony is bitter: in pursuing relevance, the Church in Wales has become irrelevant.

The Betrayal of the Faithful

But statistics alone do not capture the pain. Far deeper is the sense of betrayal felt by countless faithful Anglicans in Wales. For decades, they have been told they are the problem their insistence on biblical fidelity is backward, their desire for reverent worship is outdated, their unwillingness to bless what God has not blessed is unloving.

Faithful clergy have been marginalised, their ministries suffocated by unsympathetic bishops. Orthodox laity have been ignored, their voices drowned out by synodical machinery. Congregations which once flourished on the Word and Sacrament have been slowly starved.

The sheep cry out for shepherds who will guard them from wolves. Instead, the shepherds open the gates, invite the wolves in, and rebuke the sheep for resisting. This is not leadership. It is dereliction of duty.

Theological Analysis: Why This Matters

Why does this matter? Some might say, “These are secondary issues—why not simply allow diversity of opinion?” But such questions miss the point. The authority of Scripture is at stake. The catholicity of the Church is at stake. The salvation of souls is at stake.

The prophet Jeremiah once thundered:

Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ (Jer. 6:16)

The Church in Wales has refused the ancient paths. She has chosen the new and the novel, and in so doing, has lost her way.

St Paul's letters to the churches of Corinth and Galatia are stark warnings of the same nature, instructing these problems were not unique to those of Wales.

1 Corinthians is perhaps the most direct example: Paul addresses numerous serious issues plaguing the Corinthian church: sexual immorality (including a case of incest), divisions and factions, lawsuits between believers, misuse of spiritual gifts, and disorders in worship and communion. He repeatedly calls them to repent and reform their behaviour. 2 Corinthians includes sharp rebukes for those who questioned Paul's authority and continued in unrepentant sin, though it also shows relief many had responded positively to his earlier correction.

Galatians contains Paul's most urgent and stern rebuke, though focused specifically on the "sin" of abandoning the gospel of grace for legalistic practices. Paul expresses astonishment at how quickly they've turned away and warns of severe consequences.

The Book of Revelation records Christ’s letters to the seven churches—rebuking those who tolerated false teaching, warning those who had grown lukewarm, calling all to repent lest their lampstand be removed. These letters were not empty words—they were a divine warning. The same Christ speaks now to Wales.

This pattern recurs multiple times in apostolic teaching. 2 Peter delivers scathing criticism of false teachers who were leading people astray with destructive heresies, comparing them to unreasoning animals and promising their destruction. Jude writes an entire short letter warning against false teachers who had "crept in unnoticed" and were perverting grace into licentiousness.

The Fathers understood the danger of compromise. Athanasius stood contra mundum—against the world—because he knew truth does not bend to popular opinion. Augustine rebuked the Donatists because he knew the Church cannot remake herself according to factional desires. Thomas Aquinas taught truth is not shaped by will but received from God.

The Church in Wales has forgotten this. She has remade truth according to culture, and in so doing, has betrayed her Lord. It is "progress" towards, if not over, the moral and theological cliff.

The Call to Return

Yet it is not too late. The call of Christ is always a call to return. Return to the Scriptures as the supreme authority. Return to the Creeds as the guardrails of orthodoxy. Return to the sacraments as means of grace, not social rituals. Return to the apostolic faith, once delivered to the saints.

The most explicit and direct call for church repentance is likely Revelation 3:19-20, part of Jesus' message to the Laodicean church:

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

This is Jesus himself directly commanding a church to repent, with the stark image of Him standing outside knocking - implying the church had become so spiritually dead Christ was on the outside.

The Confessing Anglican Church exists not to gloat in superiority, but to model fidelity. We do not claim novelty—we claim continuity. We do not invent doctrine—we guard it. We do not seek cultural applause—we seek to hear, in the end, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Our witness is simple: the Gospel of Jesus Christ saves. His Word is true. His Spirit sanctifies. His Church belongs to Him, not to the synods, not to the bishops, not to the world.

A Word to the Remnant

To the faithful Anglicans in Wales who feel abandoned: take heart. You are not alone. You are part of a remnant, chosen by grace, sustained by the Spirit, upheld by Christ Himself. The institution may falter, but the Church of Christ cannot be destroyed.

Remember Elijah, despairing that he was alone, only to be told God had preserved seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. So it is today. The remnant remains, and Christ remains with them.

Do not lose hope. Do not abandon the faith of your fathers. Do not grow weary of well-doing. The witness of orthodox Anglicanism will endure in Wales, whether or not the institution repents. Christ will build His Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He has commanded it, and the nothing will prevail against it no matter how horribly it is battered and abused:

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

The Hour of Decision

The Church in Wales must choose. Will she continue down the path of cultural conformity, trading the eternal truth of God for the passing approval of men? Will she persist in reshaping doctrine to suit society, even as her pews grow empty and her witness grows faint? Or will she repent, return, and recover the Gospel that saves?

The names of those who brought this tragedy into being will live on in infamy:

Archbishop Cherry was elected having secured a two-thirds majority vote from members of the Electoral College on the second day of its meeting at the St Pierre Church and Hotel in Chepstow. The election was confirmed by the other diocesan bishops and announced by the Senior Bishop, Bishop Gregory Cameron of St Asaph. Archbishop Cherry will be enthroned at Newport Cathedral in due course.

• Very Revd Ian Black, Dean of Newport
• Bishop of St Asaph, the Rt Revd Gregory Cameron
• Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Rt Revd John Lomas
• Bishop of Llandaf, the Rt Revd Mary Stallard
• Bishop of St Davids, the Rt Revd Dorrien Davies

The choice is stark: Christ or culture. Doctrine or decline. Holiness or hollow gestures.

For the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of Wales, for the sake of the souls entrusted to her care, I plead: choose Christ.

But let it be known: even if she will not, the witness of Christ will not perish from this land. The Confessing Church will remain. The remnant will remain. The Gospel will be proclaimed. For the Church belongs not to men, but to Christ. And He will have the last word.