In recent years the Christian Church has changed very dramatically. Sometimes it is easy to get the impression that this change has been fairly straightforward. It has been about decline. Whilst the Church certainly has experienced decline in some areas, however, it has also experienced growth in others. This growth has actually given rise to the advent of a whole series of new denominations and church associations.
Gone are the days when one could practically collapse the Church into five big denominations. The twentieth century saw the advent of many new denominations including, among others, the Assemblies of God Church, the Elim Church, the Apostolic Church, the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), Associating Evangelical Churches in Wales (AECW), and the Pioneer Church. At the same time demographic changes enriched Wales with new ethnic churches that all too often get completely overlooked, e.g. the black Pentecostal churches, Korean churches, the Chinese Church and the Arabic Church.
This Index provides a window on the newer denominations, alongside those with longer histories, showing the full diversity of the 21st century Welsh Church, old and new. We hope that this will be of assistance to government and the media as it seeks to come to terms with this historic but also contemporary and changing part of Welsh civil society.
Such is the diversity of the Welsh Church today that it is possible that we may have overlooked a denomination (note selection criteria page 2). If you are aware of an omission then please do let us know and we will include it in subsequent editions.
Elfed Godding
General Secretary,
Evangelical Alliance Wales
Daniel Boucher
Evangelical Alliance Wales Churches Assembly Liaison Officer
July 2003
