Wales: Will they learn?

"Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn." So, says Charles Dicken's character, Daniel Doyce.

The Church in Wales has been beset by problems for many years.

In 2008, the Bishop of St David’s stepped down after leaving his wife amid speculation about “a scandalous” relationship with a married member of his staff.

In 2021, after the Rt Revd Richard Pain resigned, an Independent Review into the Diocese of Monmouth found, “a culture of entitlement” and that several witnesses commented on,“[T]he prevalence of swearing and an excessive intake of alcohol among bishops and senior clergy.”

In 2022, a Church in Wales disciplinary committee found that the Bishop of Llandaff, the Rt Revd June Osborne, had a case to answer after allegations of “bullying and harassment” and “a culture of fear” were brought by the Dean of the cathedral. He later resigned after the Archbishop of Wales, the Rt Revd Andrew John, ruled out any kind of independent enquiry.

And this year, the former Bishop of Swansea and Brecon (1999-2008), Rt Revd Anthony Pierce, was jailed for abusing a young boy and two independent reports, "uncovered allegations related to bullying, promiscuity, excessive alcohol consumption, financial irregularity and safeguarding failures at Bangor Cathedral in recent years."

In response, the Church in Wales’ Representative Body accepted that there had been, “…safeguarding failures, blurred boundaries, inappropriate conduct, weak control environment and lack of transparency in management…”.

The Represtative Body identified a need for a safeguarding overhaul, an independent financial audit of the work of the Diocesan Board of Finance, Diocesan Trust and Cathedral Chapter, and the development of appropriate management structures and financial and administrative procedures to ensure responsible stewardship of charitable funds, implement robust safeguarding and HR procedures, create transparent channels for reporting concerns of means for the protection of whistleblowers, and an external investigation into the “behaviour, culture and activities of the Cathedral Choir”. In addition, a need was identified for “a Provincial Safeguarding Audit of all the Cathedrals in Wales…”.

To term it an 'omnishambles' would be to minimise the seriousness of all that that has been revealed. The failings identified were comprehensive, long-standing and systemic. And all this was 'overseen' by the Archbishop of Wales - Rt Revd Andy John - from the controversial appointment of the failed Sub-Dean to the ongoing failings in safeguarding, stewardship and conduct, all happened on his watch.

After initially attempting to cling-on to his role, under pressure from the Representative Body, who said they had lost confidence in his leadership, he finally accepted the inevitable, and on 27 June 2025, announced his immediate 'retirement' as archbishop and retirement as diocesan in August.

His four-year archiepiscopacy, has been emblematic of the general decline of the Church in Wales. The picture is so bad that the Church in Wales has not been prepared to report its attendance statistics since 2018. Then it was claimed that the Average Sunday Attendance was a little over 31,500, down from 33,000. Between 2004 and 2017 there was a 34.5% decline in adult attendance and between 2012 and 2017, a 15% decline.

There is no reason to think that the decline has slowed, to the contrary, in 2023, without giving numbers, the Church in Wales reported, “The continuation of declining attendance and an increasing age profile…”

If decline has continued at only even the historic rate of around 3% a year the CiW would have a total weekly attendance of under 25,000. They’d do well to fill the Swansea Rugby club ground on an average weekend.

It might be thought that the proper response to a litany of financial, sexual, safeguarding and moral scandals, going right to the top, would lead most institutions to a period of conspicuous humility and learning from the better way taken by others. Where that institution is a provincial Church, that humility and learning would involve deep lament, godly respect of the advice and views of others, repentance that accepts that wrong paths may have been taken and that changes track and a deep desire to restore the Church to a faithfulness in witness to the glory of Christ.

The Church in Wales might be thought to need a period in 'receive' mode - humbly receiving the wisdom of Anglican churches who are thriving. Instead they have decided to go into full 'transmit' mode - defying the vast majority of the Anglican Communion and appointing the first Primate in the Communion who is openly in a same-sex civil partnership. Her name is Cherry Vann.

In making this appointment, the bishops of the Church in Wales have responded to a crisis which, in part, arises from a lack of compliance with expected sexual boundaries, by appointing someone who is entirely frank that she acted for years in secret contradiction of the Church of England’s expected sexual boundaries.

This deliberate defiance of accepted Anglican norms has not gone un-noticed by the leaders of the Anglican Communion.

The largest Province in the world, the Anglican Church of Nigeria, rejected her election. Their Primate, The Most Rev’d Henry C. Ndukuba, DD, wrote:

“Aside being a further authentication of the choice of the Church of Wales walking away from the truth, it is a signal that some sections of the global Anglican world have resolved to abandon the truth of God’s word by sacrificing the authority of the Scripture for a postmodern agenda that has no divine backing. What is at stake in the election of Bishop Vann as Archbishop of Wales are: salvation of the souls of men, biblical ethics, identity of Anglicans globally, impairment of our credibility to do missions and evangelism, and salvaging the very soul of Anglican orthodoxy. We have come to the point where a clarion call must be sounded: ‘Who is on the Lord’s side?’ Like the early Church Apologists and Martyrs of old, faithful church believers must reject heretics and apostates from our midst, strive to redeem our holy scriptures, defend our historic creeds, uphold our Articles of Faith and Catechism, and expel the 'wolves amongst our sheep'.”

The Archbishop of Sydney, Most Revd Kanishka Raffel described the appointment as,

“…. a grievous departure from the teaching of the Bible, inconsistent with the understanding of marriage as expressed in the formularies of the Anglican Church, and a tragic rejection of the words of Jesus.”

The decision was described by The Most Reverend Dr. Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council as, "another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy."

The Bishops and Officers of the Synod Church of Pakistan spoke of their "deep concern and grief" saying,

"We are compelled to raise four areas of grave concern:

Biblical Teaching and Moral Theology: The appointment contradicts the consistent witness of Scripture on sexual ethics and leadership qualifications.

Communion and Shared Faith: Our partnership as global Anglicans is built on shared beliefs; when those foundations shift, our fellowship is shaken.

Cultural and Missional Impact: In contexts like Pakistan, where Christians live as a minority, such decisions feed hostile narratives that endanger our witness and well-being.

Unity in Diversity: True unity does not come through agreement with culture, but through shared submission to Christ and His Word."

This grief was shared by the Archbishop of the Anglican/Episcopal Province of Alexandria, The Most Rev.Dr. Samy Fawzy Shehata, who said:

"With deep sorrow, I write following the Church in Wales' appointment of a new Archbishop who openly identifies as a lesbian and is in a same-sex relationship. This is not a local or private decision. It is a public rejection of biblical teaching and catholic order. Bishops serve not just locally but as part of a global communion.

This step by the Church in Wales makes it extremely difficult to find a faithful and lasting resolution to the divisions within the Anglican Communion. While many of us are diligently working to discern a way forward in this painful dilemma, continued actions of this nature hinder reconciliation, deepen the fractures, and risk rendering our efforts fruitless."

While the Most Rev Dr Justin Badi Arama, Chair of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans, used the language of the 2003 Primates Meeting, saying,

"Faithful Anglicans of the Global South will grieve that the tear in the fabric of our beloved Communion is now established at the highest level, but this will also strengthen our resolve to restore the Scriptures to their central place in our life together and build covenanted relationships through which we are able to gladly recognise one another as partners in mission and members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church."

In its moment of crisis the Church in Wales appears to have opted for hubris rather than humility. It elected to be in the vanguard of the western revisionism of the numerically tiny provinces that oppose the large provinces of the Global Majority World. Those tiny provinces - Canada, USA, New Zealand, Scotland et al, notwithstanding their sexual license, could only muster about a million attendees between them, and yet the Church in Wales still thinks, despite their own public humiliation that these rump Provinces represent the future of Anglicanism. Such arrogance in such circumstances is hard to fathom.

And their arrogance will have implications for individuals and congregations both in Wales and the wider Anglican Communion, as Archbishop Kanishka Raffel wrote:

"At a time when the See of Canterbury remains vacant, and the Church of England proceeds to develop liturgical recognition of same sex unions, this appointment adds to the increasingly irreconcilable divisions between the majority of the Anglican Communion who hold to the authority and primacy of Scripture in matters of life and faith and those churches that have departed from the teaching of Christ.

In the face of the failure of those who should be witnesses and keepers of Scripture, we give thanks for faithful Anglicans in Wales who hold to ‘the faith once delivered to the saints’ and contend for the gospel within the Church of Wales.

There is, however, a growing number whose consciences prevent them from remaining in a denomination in which the leadership has so clearly departed from the scriptures. For them, we commend the fellowship of the Anglican Network in Europe, under the pastoral care of Bishop Andy Lines."

Bishop Stuart Bell, who oversees the Welsh churches in the Anglican Network in Europe, joined Bishop Andy Lines in a statement, which said,

“Sadly for many who have already left the Church in Wales, this appointment does not come as a surprise. We have no interest in commenting on or criticising Bishop Cherry as a person, by all accounts she is extremely competent. Nor are we highlighting her gender as a problem. Faithful Anglicans take different views among themselves on the ordination and even consecration of women. 

“The issue is that Bishop Cherry, from her teaching and lifestyle, has shown consistently that she holds to a different understanding of the Christian faith from that held by faithful Anglicans down the ages. Her understanding is aligned, not with the Bible and the agreed teaching of the church according to the historic Anglican formularies, but with the prevailing ethos and worldview of progressive secularism. Her appointment once again signals clearly that the Church in Wales leadership is confused and has no confidence in the clear moral guidance which the Bible gives to us, and as a result the denomination can only continue to decline, as well as strain and damage relations with much of global Anglicanism.”

It is a tragedy when an individual fails to learn from their mistakes, but when a church doubles down on the disastrous path that it has followed for years the implications, as can be seen from these statements, are both grievous and global.

Image from Church in Wales Facebook Page

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