Concern over bishops’Welsh language skills
CONCERNS have been expressed that the Church in Wales’ status as a bilingual institution is at risk, with only one of its six bishops now a fluent Welsh-speaker.
With the retirement of Dr Barry Morgan as Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Llandaff earlier this year, and of Wyn Evans as Bishop of St Davids last year, the only fluent Welsh-speaker on the six-strong Bench of Bishops is Andrew John, the Bishop of Bangor.
In a letter to the Church Times, Llandaff Cathedral sidesman John Pockett says the Bench’s collective knowledge of Welsh is less than it has been since the Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920.
He wrote: “[The] enthronement of Bishop June Osborne [as Bishop of Llandaff]... offers an opportunity to look at the now complete Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales and there, surely, grave questions arise.
“Never before in my lifetime of over 60 years has the Bench not included at least two native Welsh speakers; often four, and sometimes even five of the six have been fluent in the language.
“Added to that is the lamentable situation where the current Bishop of St Davids is unable to speak, and therefore fully minister, in the first language of a significant number of worshippers in the diocese.
“For the record, until this year there had not been a non-Welsh speaker on the throne of St David since back in the 19th century, long before disestablishment.
“The ability to speak Welsh is certainly not a prerequisite to serve as a bishop in several of the Welsh dioceses, but surely we have the right to expect the bench collectively to have rather more than a modicum of Welsh, and to demonstrate a genuine understanding and empathy towards the older of our two national languages.
“Unless this situation is rapidly rectified, the Church in Wales will no longer be able to claim to be a bilingual Church. That will grieve many of us.”
Speaking on behalf of the Bench, the Bishop of St Asaph, Dr Gregory Cameron, said: “Of the six diocesan bishops one is a fluent Welsh-speaker, two are advanced learners and all are committed to promoting a bilingual Church.
“The Bishop of St Davids, for example, last week gave the address at the opening service of the National Eisteddfod in Welsh.
“Wales is a bilingual nation and the Church in Wales fully recognises the importance of ministry through the medium of Welsh to both those who are fluent and to those who are learning.
“We are, however, facing a real struggle to recruit Welsh-speaking clergy, across the country – it is like searching for diamonds.
“We are looking at how we can address this, and recently held a provincial conference to focus on Welshlanguage ministry – the report from that will be discussed at the meeting of the Church’s Governing Body next month.
“We strongly encourage people entering ministry to learn Welsh. What is important to us is that people are willing and keen to learn Welsh and that they are encouraged to do so, rather than judged for their lack of ability.”