Abstract

In the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, the Church in Wales experienced a remarkable revival. At the time of the 1851 religious census, the Church had seemed to be in severe decline, as only one- fifth of those attending divine workship did so under its auspices. The extent of its minority encouraged the opponents of Anglicanism in Wales to press for disestablishment, a demand that became more vociferous after the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869. Yet, contrary to expectation, the Church in Wales began to grow again, the threat of disestablishment arguably lending an urgency to its operations that had hitherto been lacking. From the 1860s and, more strongly, from the 1870s, all indices of Church performance, such as the number of people being baptized, confirmed and taking communion, experienced a steep and sustained rise in the principality