The Church in Wales and the Church of Ireland are both formerly established churches, now long since disestablished but with some differences between them. The Church of Ireland, which includes both Northern Ireland and the Republic, was historically a minority church, associated with the Anglicized land-owning aristocracy whose presence was resented in what was then a staunchly Roman Catholic country. William Ewart Gladstone, convinced that the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Ireland, if combined with land reform, would calm that troubled land, initiated steps which resulted in its disestablishment by Parliament in 1870.
The Church in Wales consists of the four Welsh dioceses that were formerly part of the Church of England and the two dioceses created since disestablishment. The historical pattern was the same as in Ireland: a largely alien Anglican presence, associated with a minority, English-speaking land-owning class, for whom the idea of an indigenous Welsh expression of Christianity, flowing especially from the 18th century Evangelical revival, was incomprehensible. The disestablishment and partial disendowment of the Welsh dioceses was approved by Parliament in 1914, as a result of concerted nonconformist agitation and against the bitter opposition of Welsh Anglicans, and came into effect after the First World War in 1920. Because the Church in Wales was constituted and endowed by the action of the state legislature, some have claimed that it is not a ‘disestablished’, but a ‘re-established’ church, albeit with the freedom to manage its own affairs under the law.
In practice, as well as in its legal foundation, the Church in Wales could be regarded as a quasi-established church. It still has a national profile and role and its proportion of Christian affiliation in Wales has grown through the relative decline of nonconformist churches. Its primate takes his title not from a particular see, but from the country or nation: ‘Archbishop of Wales’. The law of marriage was excluded from the provisions of the Welsh Church Act 1914 and the Marriage Act 1949 applies to Wales as it does to England: parishioners who meet the requirements have a right to be married in their parish church. Similarly, parishioners have the right to funeral services in their parish church and burial in the churchyard. In practice, the pastoral provision in respect of baptisms, as well as marriages and funerals, is similar to that of the Church of England. In a number of respects, the Church in Wales still has the look and feel of an established church. No doubt, as in England, more could be done by the Anglican bishops, clergy and people to seize the missionary and evangelistic opportunities that its situation presents.
