John Morgan (bishop)

John Morgan (born June 6, 1886 in Llandudno , † June 26, 1957 in London ) was a British clergyman. From 1934 he served as the Anglican Bishop of Brecon and Swansea, from 1939 as Bishop of Llandaff and from 1949 until his death as Archbishop of the Church in Wales .

Origin and studies

John Morgan was the youngest child of the Anglican clergyman John Morgan , who later became Archdeacon of Bangor . Morgan first attended St. George's National School in Llandudno and then the Cathedral School in Llandaff , where he sang as a soloist in the cathedral choir. He then attended Llandovery College before studying at Hertford College in Oxford and then at Cuddesdon College in Cuddesdon . In 1910 he graduated as a Bachelor and in 1914 as a Master of Arts . He was later awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wales in 1934 . In 1950 he became an honorary fellow at Hertford College. In 1910 he became of Watkin Herbert Williams , the Bishop of Bangor for deacon ordained before he was ordained a priest in 1911.

Ministerial service

Morgan's first position as a priest was in Llanaber and Barmouth in North West Wales from 1910 before he became chaplain to Bishop Winfrid Burrows of Truro and vicar at Truro Cathedral in 1912 . During the First World War , from 1916 to 1919 he was temporarily employed as a military chaplain in the Mediterranean and Great Britain. In 1917 he became vicar at the Cathedral of St Asaph . In 1919 he became a priest in Llanbeblig and Caernarfon , and with the Welsh Church Act 1920 he became pastor of the parish. From 1928 to 1931 he was a prison chaplain in Caernarfon prison and dean of Arfon . In 1931 he was a canon at the cathedral of Bangor and 1933 rector of Llandudno, before he in 1934 as bishop of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon was chosen. He was ordained bishop in St Asaph Cathedral on Whit Tuesday 1934 by Archbishop Alfred George Edwards of Wales. In the young diocese he laid down rules for church services and church music. In 1939 he became Bishop of the Diocese of Llandaff , and in 1949 he was elected Archbishop of the Church in Wales . In Llandaff he proved to be a capable administrator who was responsible for the reconstruction of the cathedral , which had been destroyed by an air raid , after the Second World War . He lived to see the rededication of the cathedral in the spring of 1957. Already seriously ill, he consecrated Gwilym Owen Williams as Bishop of Bangor on May 1, 1957 in Llandaff . That same evening he returned to St Thomas' Hospital in London, where he died a few weeks later. He was buried in St Asaph .

personality

Morgan was a skilled musician who could play the organ as a teenager. As a pastor in the diocese of Bangor, he became chairman of the church music committee of the diocese. As a bishop in 1934 he was elected chairman of the committee that edited the Welsh hymn book Emynau'r Eglwys . During his tenure as Archbishop, a commission of clergy began revising the Book of Common Prayer . As a bishop he was an excellent but extremely meticulous and precise administrator. He paid close attention to the observance of the liturgical rules. Small in stature, he was shy and reserved in private. Like his father, however, he could be generous and gracious. Only good friends knew that he was good at telling anecdotes and that he could speak the dialect of Caernarfon.

Web links

• MORGAN, Most Rev. John. In: Who Was Who, A&C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, April 2014
• Mary Gwendoline Ellis: MORGAN, JOHN (1886-1957), Archbishop of Wales (Dictionary of Welsh Biography, National Library of Wales)

predecessor	Office	successor
David Lewis Prosser	Archbishop of Wales 1949–1957	Edwin Morris
Timothy Rees	Bishop of Llandaff 1939–1957	William Glyn Hughes Simon
Edward Bevan	Bishop of Swansea and Brecon 1934–1939	Edward Williamson