Methodist revival in Wales
The Wales Methodist Revival was a movement that influenced Christianity in Wales in the 18th century.
Methodist preachers such as Griffith Jones, William Williams and Howell Harris brought about the turning of many people to Christ ("decision for him") and thus their return to church life through their appearances. That revival ended in the late 1790s after the deaths of Williams, John Wesley, and Daniel Rowland. It led to the founding of the Calvinist Methodists and also revitalized the other dissenting churches.
Beginnings
The immediate beginnings of the revival date back to the conversion of Howell Harris at Talgarth Church in 1735. Harris had heard Rev. Pryce Davies sermon on the need to partake in Holy Communion . Harris came to believe that he had received grace through the blood of Christ. He began to share this experience with others and held meetings for his followers at his home in Trefeca .
Griffith Jones (1684–1761), rector of Llanddowror in Carmarthenshire, is regarded as a forerunner of the Methodist movement in Wales . Jones believed that schools should give a minimum of instructions in the shortest possible time. The teachers should then go to the next village. The first of these Circulating Welsh Charity Schools opened in 1737. With these schools moving from place to place, thousands of students in Wales have been taught Bible reading and an entire generation has been receptive to the ideas of Methodism. Jones himself also preached in the open, just as the Methodist leaders later did. Howell Harris went to see Jones after his conversion for spiritual guidance and direction. Daniel Rowland , an Anglican pastor, was converted through his sermons . He himself began to preach in the spirit of Methodism. Another leader at the beginning of the revival was William Williams . He was converted in 1737 as a result of Harris' sermon in Talgarth churchyard.
The "jumpers"
The followers of the 1762 revival in Llangeitho are known as "jumpers", based on their habit of jumping for joy. This is described in Martha Philopur's letter to her teacher Pastor Philo Evangelius and in his reply. In these letters these and other phenomena are defended during the revival and contrasted with the practices of the Quakers and Shakers . John Wesley, however, suggested that such revival phenomena would discredit the real work of God.
The movement
Rowland and Harris had been at work for 18 months when they first met in Defynnog Church in 1737. This meeting soon became a friendship. It can also be seen as the beginning of the Methodist movement in Wales. Since then, the Methodist leaders met regularly to organize their work and to discuss issues of common interest.
Harris and Williams went on preaching tours beginning in South Wales. After the sermons, they organized the converts into small groups, called "seiadau" (communities) in Welsh. By 1750 there were over 400 such groups in Wales. These groups were under close supervision, guidance and direction, and they were integrated into a corresponding network within the Anglican Church . Rowland tried to make Llangeitho a center of the movement. Thousands of community members came there on sacrament Sundays to receive the sacrament.
Reformed Movement
The Methodist revival in Wales differed from that in England in that its theology was Calvinist rather than Arminian . Initially, the leaders of the Revival worked with John Wesley, but gradually they separated from him and allied with George Whitefield and his patroness, the Countess of Huntingdon Selina.
The Welsh Methodists and the Church of England
The Methodist Revival began in the Anglican Church in Wales and initially remained part of that organization as a group. But as the movement continued to expand, the Methodists gradually built their own networks, structures, and meeting houses (chapels). This culminated in the Secession in 1811 and in 1823 the formal founding of the Presbyterian Church of Wales .
The Welsh Methodists and the Dissenters
The Methodist revival also had a significant impact on the other nonconformist, Baptist and Congregationalist churches. These also experienced growth and renewal as a result. As a result of the Methodist revival in Wales, the Anglican Church lost its dominant position there. Since the mid-19th century, Christianity in Wales has been mainly determined by the nonconformists , i.e. the followers of free churches such as Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists.
swell
- Gwyn Davies: A Light in the Land. Christianity in Wales, 200-2000 , Bryntirion Press, Bridgend 2002, ISBN 1-85049-181-X