Welsh Nonconformity & Popular Culture 9: Sport

Lastly in this series on Welsh Nonconformity and popular culture, we come to sport. Wales is, of course, famous for its Rugby, and so we could not end things without reference to sport. Cinema will not be examined, as a new book is out on that and I haven't read it yet.

Sport was widely seen as a threat to clean living and morality by the chapel hierarchy, being associated with drinking, disorder and the culture of working men’s clubs. The formation of the Ystradgynlais Rugby Club in 1890, for example, was met with trenchant opposition from the chapels, culminating with the removal of the goal posts before the club’s first game.[1] This suspicion remained, despite the growing popularity of the sport, the Rev. John Rees of the Rhondda deploring the tendency of young people to play and to watch rugby, while verbally consigning those who frequented matches to the outer darkness.[2] There were a few evangelists, such as George Clarke, committed to ‘Muscular Christianity’ who embraced sport, while rejecting the culture of drinking and gambling that surrounded it.[3] As noted at the beginning, the Revival of 1904-5 led to the dissolution of Rugby and football teams, as their members were converted. In Ammanford, Rugby was not played again until 1907, in Evan Roberts’ home town of Loughor; there were no matches until 1909.[4] After 1910, however, the state of sport in Wales had returned to normal, and by the 1930s, many churches in South Wales would have their own football teams. As with the theatre, sport would remain something viewed with suspicion by many leading Nonconformists, while increasing numbers of chapel members made their own compromise with the world, choosing to attend or to play, while avoiding the more obvious vices.

[1] David Smith & Gareth Williams, Fields of Praise: The Official History of the Welsh Rugby Union 1881-1981 (Cardiff, 1980), pp.7-8.
[2] Smith & Williams, Fields, p.101.
[3] Smith & Williams, Fields, p.126.
[4] Smith & Williams, Fields, pp.126-8.

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 8: The Stage (part two)

In the previous post, we saw that Welsh Nonconformity's involvement with 'life upon the wicked stage' (apologies to Jerome Kern) was problematic. While some people attempted to reconcile the stage and the saints, others rejected this on the grounds that theatrical performances, whatever the subject, tended to appeal to the baser elements in man and could never be used by Christians.

Others were ready to disagree, arguing that if Christianity did not produce morally uplifting plays, then the devil’s agents would be only too happy to produce plays of a very different kind. By leaving the field entirely to the devil, the church would ensure that he would prevail. One of the most prominent of these men was Beriah Gwynfe Evans, a schoolteacher at Gwynfe and Llangadog, Carmarthenshire.[1]

Beriah Evans, later a journalist and a committed Welsh Nationalist, attempted to win over Nonconformity to the stage in a very different way. His production of Owen Glyndwr at Llanberis in 1880 demonstrated that plays need not approach dubious subjects. Owen Glyndwr was followed in 1903 with Llywelyn ein Llyw Olaf, a play about the last Prince of the House of Gwynedd. As late as 1881, however, the Congregationalist Newspaper Y Tyst would praise the Independent churches in the Rhondda for their role in causing the collapse of the Pentre Traveling Playhouse.[2] Similarly, the 1904-5 Revival shut a number of playhouses as the players were converted or their audience dried up, although in Aberdare, Revival broke out in the theatre as people watched a performance of the play Saints and Sinners by Henry Arthur Jones.[3]

Things were changing, however. In 1917, Beriah Evans was appointed editor of Y Tyst,[4] and by the 1930s, most Chapels had their own amateur dramatic societies, although performances were always kept separate from the main services, even when JR's religious-themed 'dialogues' were being performed.[5]

[1] Dictionary of Welsh Biography, pp. 220-221.
[2] Jones, Congregationalism, p.183.
[3] Jones, Faith and the Crisis of a Nation (Cardiff, 2004), p.367.
[4] Dictionary of Welsh Biography, pp. 220-221.
[5] Gwynn Williams, 'A Physician for Aberavon,' in Evangelical Magazine of Wales 20 (2), p.14.

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 7: The Stage (Part One)

In the third area of ‘literary’ entertainment, the theatre, the reaction of Nonconformity was more mixed. Efforts to capture the playhouse for Christ being viewed with suspicion and downright disapproval in many quarters. Unlike poetry, which has been used in Christian contexts for a very long time and novels, the first of which in the English language was Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, theatre has long been viewed with disapproval by Christians. In the early church, actors and actresses were barred from Church membership until they left the stage, while the Puritans closed the theatres. Theatres were seen by many Nonconformists as dens of iniquity, actresses as little better than prostitutes, and actors as mountebank seducers. As previously noted, the Methodists of the Eighteenth Century Evangelical Revival were implacably opposed to the theatrical performances known as ‘Interludes’ that often took place in churchyards after the service.

Independent minister John Roberts (better known as J.R, but no Dallas references, please), challenged this aversion to theatrical performances. Starting in 1834, he published a series of ‘dialogues,’ designed to be performed. The first of these, ‘Minister and Enquirer,’ was designed to illustrate the way of Salvation to an audience. Later dialogues included dramatizations of scenes from the Bible, such as Hanes Joseph (The History of Joseph). Coming as they did from the pen of a minister, these dialogues began to be performed in chapels (although not in the main meetings). While some believed theatrical performances could be utilized to spread the Gospel, others voiced deep disquiet, Edward Williams of Dinas Maddwy declaring that the influence of the playhouse ‘is bad even when it is carried on in the most appropriate manner.’[1]

William Williams, Hirwaun, highlighted the dangers that a performance, even when based on Biblical history, could carry, drawing attention to a performance of Hanes Joseph he had seen, in which the attempted seduction of Joseph by his master’s wife was performed, a young girl playing the part of the Egyptian temptress. This, he declared, was pure voyeurism. ‘In using sacred history in this way, we are guilty of turning God’s grace unto wantonness.’[2]

[1] Quoted in Jones, Congregationalism, p.182.
[2] Quoted in Jones, Congregationalism, p.182.

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 6: The Novel (Part 2)

John Thomas, an Independent very much influenced by Dickens, led the way in Welsh religious fiction, publishing numerous novels, most of which were serialized in denominational magazines. His novels included Ada Prys, Watcyn Owain and Arthur Llwyd y Felin (Arthur Lloyd of the Mill). Thomas’ characters were fairly flat, the backgrounds, being based on real places, having greater depth than the protagonists. These novels, although certainly not intended to bore the reader, were not just entertainment, but designed to be improving:

"The authors invited the reader to recognize situations which could easily fit into everyday life and they presented characters who were general examples rather than individuals in order for the reader to learn how to avoid an unhappy situation or arrive at an attractive goal. For the author, the ethical usefulness of the novels was an important consideration.[1]"

Besides the rather sentimental religious novels, in which, after a brush with vice, the hero and heroine follow the path of virtue and all goes right, there were some genuinely original productions, such as Margaret Williams, neu…Gyfloy Perchod (or… the wages of Sin), a chilling tale that begins with a grisly murder.[2] On the whole, however, religious novels were of dubious literary quality and have been justly forgotten. Although in all fairness the works of such English writers as Florence Barclay and Ethel M. Dell were hardly any better.


[1] Jones, Congregationalism, pp.181-2.
[2] Jones, Congregationalism, pp.181-2.

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 5: The Novel (part one)

It was not only in the field of Welsh poetry that Welsh Nonconformity made a distinctively Christian cultural contribution. Taking the example of Pantycelyn and Bunyan’s allegorical writing and adding a liberal dash of Dickens, Welsh Nonconformity added the Christian novel to its bookshelf.

The decision of certain ministers that the writing of novels might be a means of influencing the public seems to have had a part of its roots in the temperance movement. Writing a novel in which an innocent (often female) is degraded through alcohol, ending with their redemption (or untimely end) was thought to have a greater effect in some quarters than sermonizing, like the ‘social message’ film or TV show today. The most obvious example of such a novel is Gruffydd Rhisiart’s Jeffrey Jarman (content obvious), of 1855.[1]

The popularity among English nonconformists of the stories of Emma Jane Worboise, a prolific and largely forgotten authoress,[2] showed Welsh Nonconformists that sentimental, romantic religious novels had a ready audience among evangelicals. In addition, the capture of a popular form of reading for the church would allow Nonconformists to join the popular passion for novels without compromising their faith and example. [3]

[1] Jones, Congregationalism, p.181.
[2] R. Tudur Jones, Congregationalism in England 1662-1962 (London, 1962), p.292.
[3] For a discussion of modern Christian novels, see http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2006-07-07

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 4: The Eiseddfod (Part two)

Today's illustration shows the Gorsedd Circle outside Cardiff Town Hall. Until recently, when the Gorsedd acquired brand new fibreglass stones, such circles would be erected wherever the National Eiseddfod met, a permanent monument to the cultural gathering. As we saw in yesterday's post, the Gorsedd of bards, with its ceremonial, allowed Nonconformist preacher-poets the experience of hierarchy and liturgy.

What sort of poetry, then, did these poet-preachers actually write? It was not simply secular poetry, but their religious convictions determined the form and content. Caledfryn was the first to lay down the principles that should govern distinctively Nonconformist poetry. His base standard was the poetry of the Psalms and songs of the Bible. ‘The Bible,’ he declared, ‘or the Bible’s poetry, is the only perfect standard for us to know what poetry is.’[1]

Like his Puritan forebears, Williams found in the Bible a complete rule for life and work and it was this that he attempted to apply to poetry. The subject matter had to be suitably lofty, possessed of a moral purpose. Ideally the subject of Nonconformist poetry should be religious experience or Doctrine. This was popular poetry, aimed at the common people and aimed at improving the common people.[2] W.J Gruffydd and Thomas Parry were later to criticize much of this poetry as weak and sentimental. It probably was, as poetry, but the poets and their readers had somewhat different standards, measuring the quality of poetry by its usefulness in declaring Jesus Christ or moving people to live better lives. Still, in comparison to Bunyan and Pantycelyn, the work of these poets was weak and ephemeral.[3] Additionally, involvement in Eisteddfodau could lead to an unhealthy spirit of emulation among ministers (one minister compared another to the devil!), as they competed for the prize in a most un-Christian manner, as well as unnecessarily stoking denominational jealousies.[4]

[1] Jones, Congregationalism, p.179.
[2] Jones, Congregationalism, p.180.
[3] Jones, Congregationalism, pp.180-1.
[4] Jones, Congregationalism, pp.178-9.

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 3: The Eisteddfod (Part One)

When it came to the churches reaching out into the world, sallying forth to capture the citadels of culture for Christ, there was an initial reluctance, born of persecution. In the days of discriminatory Acts of Parliament, it had been enough to thank God for the freedom to meet Equally, there was a common feeling that the world, opposed as it was to the Saints, had to be brought within the Chapel to be conquered, that if the Chapel went forth to capture the world it might itself be captured. Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland had opposed the performance of ‘Interludes,’ short pieces of drama (normally performed in churchyards), as the work of the Devil; while Williams Pantycelyn’s great poetic gifts had been employed as writer of popular devotional literature and hymns.

Yet by 1840, things had begun to change, the traditional Nonconformist hostility to secular poetry being gradually challenged by a few men within Nonconformity. The first of these brave souls was William Williams of Denbigh (Caledfryn), who broke the mould by competing in the Wrexham Eisteddfod of 1820, and action he repeated a year later in Caernarfon. He was to be joined by two more natives of Denbigh, William Rees (Gwilyn Hiraethog-pictured), the winner of the first prize at the 1826 Brecon Eisteddfod, and Thomas Pierce, who competed in Eisteddfodau from 1839.[1] These men proved to be pioneers, leading a great flood into the Eisteddfodau from Chapels of all denominations. Although the Independents led the way, the Calvinistic Methodists and the Baptists were not slow to follow, many Chapels displaying the Bardic Chairs won by their ministers and members. The Baptist Chapels in Aberystwyth displaying three between them.[2]

Why did competing in the Eisteddfod prove so popular to Ministers? R. Tudur Jones suggested an answer in his Congregationalism in Wales, for Ministers, he averred:

"[The eisteddfod was] so clearly congenial to the spirit of an age which more
than anything else exalted competition and emphasized personal fulfillment and
satisfaction. Alongside this, there were also social reasons for the success of
the eisteddfod. Through it, a host of men who had not been to college and were
lacking in status had a suitable stage. They could adopt poetic and unusual
pseudonyms; to have a poetic pseudonym became in itself a sign of status.
Through becoming an eisteddfodic judge the literary man inherited authority in a
field of eminence as far as the social aspirations of the period were concerned.
He could reward the successful with literary immortality and consign the
unsuccessful to oblivion. In the Gorsedd of Bards, Nonconformist ministers could
enjoy ceremonial without becoming Anglicans, and the Gorsedd gave them an
opportunity to attain precedence over each other without denying their authority
as ministers.[3]"

[1] Jones, Congregationalism, p.177.
[2] Attendance at both chapels.
[3] Jones, Congregationalism, p.178.

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 2: Belief

The majority of Welsh Nonconformists were Calvinists; as such they believed that God was sovereign over all creation – not simply the Church. With Dutch pastor-politician Abraham Kuyper (pictured), they held that religion was a life-system, affecting every part of the life of a person – and through them the life of the nation in which they lived.[1] Accordingly, Welsh Nonconformists set out to capture the culture for the church and the Gospel, responding to Calvin’s declaration that every sphere of human life had to be brought under the dominion of the Gospel. Not only did Nonconformity give birth to a new Christian culture, ‘Voluntaryism,’ but new forms of old culture, such as a distinctively Christian entertainment culture.[2]

Welsh Nonconformity in particular felt that it was not enough to equip the new convert with a basic understanding of Christianity, but to broaden their general culture as well. Welsh Literary Societies sprang up in many of the Chapels to meet the demand for popular engagement with culture, with essay-writing competitions being introduced from mid-century, following the example of Daniel Jones, the Minister of Bethesda Independent Chapel, Merthyr Tydfil.[3] Along with literary societies came popular lectures on heroes of the faith, and a little later on, debating societies. Of the social programmes of the chapels, enough has been said elsewhere; suffice it to say that these were full, and often eclectic. There were meetings on most week-day evenings. The calendar of one chapel in Anglesey reveals fourteen week-night meetings![4]

[1] Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism (Lafayette, 2001).
[2] Jane Shaw & Alan Kreider (ed.), Culture and the Nonconformist Tradition (Cardiff, 1999), p.2.
[3] R. Tudur Jones, Congregationalism in Wales (Cardiff, 2004), p.153.
[4] R. Tudur Jones, Faith and the Crisis of a Nation (Cardiff, 2004), pp.89-90.

Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 1: Introduction.

Mid-nineteenth century Wales was popularly characterized as ‘a nation of Nonconformists.’ Men such as Lloyd George and Tom Ellis went out of their way to stress the unique religious heritage of the Welsh, while a simple walk through any Welsh town will reveal a plethora of Chapels, the incidence of places of worship in Cardiff having more in common with Cairo than any English town. R. Tudur Jones, in his history of Congregationalism in Wales speaks of ‘A Nonconformist Civilization.’ Mighty Tabernacl, Morriston (pictured) reminds us of those days.

However, the image of the ‘Little Bethels’ as the homes of Welsh culture is challenged by the counter-image of Welsh Puritanism holding back Welsh popular culture. Just as the Methodists had opposed the performance of ‘interludes’ in the eighteenth century, so they opposed rugby and football in the nineteenth, not to mention golfing on the Sabbath. The Welsh Sunday Closing Act, a milder form of prohibition, kept Welshmen from their pints on a Sunday night, while the effects of the 1904-5 Revival included disbanded theatre companies and sporting clubs, not to mention cancelled eisteddfodau. The reaction between nonconformity and Welsh popular culture was – and is – complex and multifaceted, at once favorable and antagonistic.

The first – and the most obvious – point is that the primary task of the Chapels was not the perpetuation of Welsh culture, popular or otherwise, but the saving of souls. The reason why Griffith Jones, Llanddowror had set up the circulating schools in Welsh was not because he wished to save the Welsh language, but because he wished to save the Welsh people, and the quickest way to achieve this was in their own language. However, the church exists in the world, and its moral imperative to save souls has always necessitated engagement with the world and its culture. By the 1840s, the engagement of Nonconformity with Welsh culture was producing a dynamic synthesis which went beyond the use of Welsh on purely pragmatic grounds.

And it is this synthesis which we shall, God willing, examine in more detail over the next few posts.