Financial controls were dismantled, and trustees were “disempowered”, in Bangor diocese, a review of the situation over the five years before the previous Archbishop’s resignation has found.

The independent governance review of Bangor Diocesan Board of Finance (BDBF) and Bangor Diocesan Trust (BDT), published on Friday, was told by trustees that it had became apparent that “they should not challenge what was being done because it was already agreed, and dissent would not be appreciated.”

During the period studied — the five years leading up to the retirement as Bishop of Bangor and Archbishop of Wales of the Most Revd Andy John, in 2025 — several serious-incident reports were sent to the Charity Commission relating to Bangor Cathedral (News, 14 May 2025).

A Visitation and safeguarding audit heard about “weak financial controls” and was told that there was “no protection for those raising concerns” (News, 3 May 2025). Archbishop John announced his retirement in the wake of its publication, apologising for “errors of judgement” (News, 27 June 2025).

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Financial controls were dismantled, and trustees were “disempowered”, in #Bangor diocese, a review of the situation over the five years before the previous Archbishop’s resignation has found#churchinwales #churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/BrgXlgwQC6

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 9, 2026

Almighty God, who didst call thy servant David to be a faithful and wise steward of thy mysteries for the people of Wales: Mercifully grant that, following his purity of life and zeal for the gospel of Christ, we may with him receive the crown of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever (moved from yesterday).

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! Happy St David's Day!

The patron saint of Wales/Cymru, you can find depictions of him throughout Wales – like this window from St David's Church in Blaenporth, Ceredigion.

📸 1 © Llywelyn2000 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
📸 2 © Bill Nicholls (CC BY-SA 2.0) pic.twitter.com/PoO7ChzV01

— National Churches Trust (@NatChurchTrust) March 1, 2026

Orthodox Anglicans have accused bishops in the Church in Wales of “misleading” statements as it moves towards making same-sex blessings permanent. 

Bishops in the Church in Wales have published a ‘road map’ for the future of same-sex blessings following a four-year trial and a six-month consultation with clergy and parishioners.

During the trial period, same-sex couples in a civil partnership or marriage were allowed to come to Church in Wales churches with friends and family to receive a blessing.

The bishops said that the Church is reaching the point “where it must take major decisions on these matters”. 

In a pastoral letter to Church in Wales members, the bishops said that “most” responses to the consultation were “in favour of the view that the time is right to offer equal marriage to traditional and same sex couples”.

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Church in Wales 'road map' for same-sex blessings is 'distressing' https://t.co/0eujIwhx2e

— Christian Today (@ChristianToday) December 3, 2025

The Representative Body (RB) of the Church in Wales has come under fire for the statement that it issued on 1 July in response to the situation at Bangor Cathedral.

Critics suggested that the action had been beyond the RB’s remit, and had given the then Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Bangor, the Rt Revd Andrew John, little option but to retire with immediate effect (News, 28 June).

On 23 June, Archbishop John issued an unqualified apology for his part in the failings at Bangor Cathedral. Two reports commissioned by the Archbishop had recorded concerns about “weak financial controls” and “inappropriate behaviours” (News, 27 June).

The following day, the situation at Bangor was discussed by the RB, and a brief note was issued: “After extensive and detailed discussions, the meeting has been adjourned, and a statement will be issued in due course.”

Archbishop John announced his retirement three days later.

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The Representative Body (RB) of the Church in #Wales has come under fire for the statement that it issued on 1 July in response to the situation at #Bangor Cathedralhttps://t.co/ObU1OOrCJx

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 23, 2025

We do not judge people. We affirm God’s grace for all who turn to Him. But love does not mean ignoring sin. Unity cannot exist without truth.

This step by the Church in Wales makes it extremely difficult to find a faithful and lasting resolution to the divisions within the Anglican Communion. While many of us are diligently working to discern a way forward in this painful dilemma, continued actions of this nature hinder reconciliation, deepen the fractures, and risk rendering our efforts fruitless.

We continue to pray for the Church, and for strength to remain faithful to the Gospel of Christ.

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Looking at the events of the past few years in the Church of Wales, beginning from the leadership of Bishop Rowan Williams who was also bishop of Monmouth, then Archbishop of Wales before becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury; the immediate past Archbishop of Wales, Archbishop Andrew John who ended in a most shameful circumstance, and the recent election of Bishop Vann, it may be said that biblical and godly leaders are now few in the leadership of the Church of Wales.

Thus, that an openly lesbian woman is the “right leader for the moment” in the Church of Wales shows how deep the church has sunk. Rather than advocating reconciliation as being championed by the new Archbishop of Wales, the important matter of the moment should be a call for genuine repentance. It is becoming clearer as echoed by Paul in Romans 1:28 in view of what had just happened in the Church of Wales that some in the global Anglican world have ultimately chosen not, “…to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”

The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) condemns, unequivocally rejects and will not recognize the election of Rt. Rev. Cherry Vann as Archbishop of Wales. We will strive to uphold the authority of the Scriptures, our historic creeds, evangelism and holy Christian living. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ will build His Church and “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16 :18). We call upon faithful Christians of the Anglican fold to denounce, reject, condemn and expel the rebels in our midst, while we realign ourselves with Anglican remnants scattered in troubled dioceses all over the world, under the umbrella of faithful Anglican Christian bodies like GAFCON.

Therefore, as a matter of urgency, the Church of Nigeria believes that this moment calls for prayer for the Church of Wales, hoping that the Church of England will not follow in her steps.

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Nigerian Primate Archbishop Henry Ndukuba accused the Church in Wales of abandoning “the truth of God’s word by sacrificing the authority of the Scripture for a postmodern agenda that has no divine backing".https://t.co/fmTgJhPkD8

— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) August 5, 2025

We must confront serious error that compromises God’s glorious and authoritative word on human sexuality.

We must speak up and take a stand.

As we met to reform and renew the Anglican Communion in 2008, Gafcon delivered the Jerusalem Statement which outlined the true heart of Anglican orthodoxy.

We took a stand about the truth of God’s word, and we continue to stand in fellowship with the majority of the world’s Anglicans who grieve this rejection of God’s voice.

We must stand again against the relentless pressure of Anglican revisionists who blatantly impose their immorality upon Christ’s precious church.

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Theologically orthodox groups within the Anglican Communion are lamenting the election of a bishop in a same-sex civil partnership as the new Archbishop of the Church in Wales. https://t.co/e039mqRoh2

— IRD (@TheIRD) July 31, 2025

Motion approved by the Trustees of the Representative Body of the Church in Wales

The Trustees of the Representative Body of the Church in Wales acknowledge with deep concern the serious issues raised in recent reports and correspondence regarding leadership, safeguarding, management, and conduct in the central structures of Bangor Diocese and at Bangor Cathedral. As the charitable trustee body responsible for stewarding assets and distributing funding to both the diocese and the cathedral, we take our duty of care and accountability to the Church and wider community with the utmost seriousness.

Our Concern and Responsibility

The revelations of safeguarding failures, blurred boundaries, inappropriate conduct, weak control environment and lack of transparency in management at Bangor Cathedral are deeply troubling. Trustees are legally bound to ensure that the charities which they oversee uphold the highest standards of governance, safeguarding and record keeping. It is vital that there is public trust in any charity which is part of the Church in Wales family. Stewardship of charitable assets demands that funding is used to further the Church’s mission and benefit the public in a manner consistent with our values and legal obligations. It is incumbent on the RB Trustees to ensure that the financial support they provide is properly and accountably used.

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Statement from the Representative Body of the Church in Wales on Bangor Cathedral https://t.co/IIMODnAuMI via @Anglican Ink © 2025

— George Conger (@GeorgeConger8) July 2, 2025

The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, has announced his immediate retirement, four days after issuing an unqualified apology for his part in the failings at Bangor Cathedral.

In a statement issued on Friday evening, he said: “Dear friends, I am writing to you to announce my immediate retirement today as Archbishop of Wales. I also intend to retire as Bishop of Bangor on August 31st.

“It has been an enormous joy to serve in the Church in Wales for over 35 years. I cannot thank you enough for the privilege of working at your side for the sake of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

“I would very much like to thank the clergy and congregations of this wonderful diocese before I retire and I will be in touch again about the way in which this might happen.”

Read it all.

The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, has announced his immediate retirement, four days after issuing an unqualified apology for his part in the failings at Bangor Cathedral.https://t.co/KCcwPrGBK3

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 30, 2025

Then, as now, the majority of global Anglicans believed that apostolic teaching calls for those engaging in sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage to be loved by the church and called to repent. Without repentance, such a person cannot be considered a “true shepherd” and therefore should be precluded from ordination or consecration. It was, therefore, TEC’s willingness to consecrate a man in a same-sex relationship which tore “the fabric of [the] communion at its deepest level.”

Returning to the events of Saturday 11th May 2024, Bishop Jill Duff told Anglican Futures that she was asked to attend the consecration of Bishop David Morris as a representative of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York…. She was very clear that it was in that capacity, rather than as an honorary assistant bishop in the Church in Wales, that she did so .

This raises a number of issues of national and international significance:

First, this means a bishop of the Church of England was involved in the consecration of a man whose conduct would prevent him from being consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England.

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When @AnglicanFutures publishes a piece like this it quickly becomes obvious that the only real sin for @churchofengland bishops is to dissent from the idea that truth is best regarded as being plural. Nearly 3,000 reads shows how wrong that is. https://t.co/Z5hLAuYA8D

— Dan Leafe (@DanLeafe1) May 19, 2024

History was made today when the youngest person ever to become a bishop in the Church in Wales was consecrated.

David Morris, 38, was anointed and received the symbols of the office of a bishop at a special service at Bangor Cathedral.

It follows his appointment in January as Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Bangor. David takes the title of Bishop of Bardsey.

Read it all.

The sun shone and people packed into @Cadeirlan to see David Morris – the Church's youngest ever bishop – consecrated. Read the full report here.https://t.co/1cAIqck4ws @EsgobaethBangor

— The Church in Wales | Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru (@ChurchinWales) May 11, 2024

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Almighty God, who didst call thy servant David to be a faithful and wise steward of thy mysteries for the people of Wales: Mercifully grant that, following his purity of life and zeal for the gospel of Christ, we may with him receive the crown of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

Today the Church of England celebrates the feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601

Image: Window (1909) in @StDavidsCath's Becket Chapel. Photo by Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons pic.twitter.com/uQfDP0HiYJ

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) March 1, 2024

The ability of the Church in Wales to bring people together in good conversation and partnership should never be underestimated, the Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, told the Church’s Governing Body on Tuesday.

In a presidential address that drew parallels with the story of Nehemiah, and focused on challenge and opportunity, he announced the Church’s hosting of a two-day all-Wales climate summit in the second part of next year. It will draw together academics, activists, pressure groups, and stakeholders to discuss the health of the country’s waterways, and the impact of industry, agriculture, and residential domestic use on its landscape.

Wales had the opportunity to redesign its approach to energy, water, land use, and the sustainability of food supply at every level, Archbishop John said. “We are not the experts, save we know what good signposting looks like, and what human flourishing involves. We have a role as people of neutrality that invites confidence.

“Our capacity and commitment to show what human society could look like is well understood and appreciated. We have seen that church must mean much more than gathering and breaking bread on Sunday; that our commitment to justice, to the creation, to the poor might take us into uncomfortable places. That is what the Kingdom of God invites and involves.”

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The ability of the Church in Wales to bring people together in good conversation and partnership should never be underestimated, the Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, told the Church’s Governing Body on Tuesday https://t.co/bJUxYcLzBw

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 6, 2023

Canon Richard has had a long connection with the Church in Wales, leading retreats, preaching, and teaching across Wales. Richard has undertaken education consultancy in Church in Wales’ schools and assists as an adviser in change management to clergy. He is an Honorary Canon of St Asaph Cathedral.

“I am delighted to have been invited by Bishop June to be the next Dean of Llandaff,” says Canon Richard Peers. “The Church in Wales and Llandaff Cathedral have had an important place in my heart for many years. I look forward to praying, working, and living in Llandaff as part of the strong team in the Cathedral.

“This is an exciting time for the Church in Wales and for Llandaff Diocese and Cathedral. The Cathedral is a place where faith matters and I will be glad to lead the Cathedral as it further develops the diocesan vision to tell a joyful story, grow the kingdom of God, and build the capacity for good of churches across the Diocese.”

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📣New Dean of Llandaff Cathedral announced.

Croeso – Welcome to The Reverend Canon Richard Peers is to become the Dean of @LlandaffCath

We look forward to working alongside Canon Richard when he starts his new position in November. https://t.co/eHeNIqndgK

— Llandaff Diocese ✝️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@LlandaffDio) September 20, 2022

The Queen’s repeated visits to the small Welsh mining town of Aberfan, after a disaster which killed 116 children and 28 adults, were an example of her “soft power”, which shaped the UK and its relations with the world, the Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, said on Friday.

The tragedy, in 1966, when a colliery spoil tip collapsed engulfing a primary school, led to four visits to the town from the Queen — the last in 2012, to open a new school. Archbishop John said that the people of Aberfan found her “deeply consoling”.

“In her role as head of the Commonwealth,” he said, “she presided over a growing fellowship of nations, and she embraced our diverse histories, cultures, and languages, delighting in the sheer variety of this unique assembly. At times, when countries threatened to forsake each other, she displayed the skilful use of that ‘soft power’ . . . that way of exercising power that has depth and reach.

“In Wales, that skill was never more evident than when she visited Aberfan, in 1966. The community of Aberfan found her presence deeply consoling, and Her Majesty would return four more times to this community.”

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LATEST. Queen’s visits to Aberfan were an example of ‘soft power’, says Archbishop of Wales, as final leg of King’s national tour arrives in Wales

https://t.co/Okpdl4fo3c

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 16, 2022

What happened in the diocese of Monmouth over the long absence and subsequent retirement of its former Bishop, the Rt Revd Richard Pain, is described in a newly published review as a “tragedy”. Long ministries of service to the Church were curtailed, careers were damaged, and reputations were left in ruins, it says.

The review panel — the Rt Revd Graham James, a former Bishop of Norwich; Lucinda Herklots, a former diocesan secretary in Salisbury; and Patricia Russell, a former deputy registrar for Winchester and Salisbury — concluded: “We recognise that we are looking at events with the benefit of hindsight, but we do not believe there is a single malign figure on whom all that happened can be blamed.

“Rather, this is a story of people attempting to do the right thing but tying themselves in knots when they fail to revisit poor decisions and avoid risk to the extent that they create more of it. That is why this is genuinely a tragedy.”

The panel’s object was not to determine whether allegations related to the former Bishop were true. These are nowhere specified, though there are clues, and all identifying references to “Alex”, who made a disclosure about the Bishop’s behaviour, are redacted for his or her anonymity.

The in-depth report runs to more than 100 pages, and makes uncomfortable reading for the Church in Wales….

Read it all.

Review lists catalogue of errors in Monmouth and the Church in Wales https://t.co/Ti6Z363YOL from @churchtimes

— Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) December 14, 2021

Andy John, who has served as the Bishop of Bangor for the past 13 years, has been chosen as the 14th Archbishop of Wales.

He succeeds Bishop John Davies who retired in May after four years as the leader of the Church in Wales.

Archbishop Andy was elected having secured a two-thirds majority vote from members of the Electoral College on the first day of its meeting at Holy Trinity Church, Llandrindod Wells. The election was immediately confirmed by the five other diocesan bishops and announced at the door of the church by the Provincial Secretary of the Church in Wales, Simon Lloyd.

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The decision could have taken up to three days, but was made within a day. https://t.co/BCmq18Q5Yl

— ITV Wales News (@ITVWales) December 6, 2021

Several clergy acknowledged the struggles they had on the issue. The Revd Richard Wood (Bangor) believed that those opposed to the Bill had been misrepresented: “We disagree how we read scripture. I stand here not as a bigot, but as someone who has struggled to a point where I believe this Bill would be crossing a boundary,” he said. “My position has been maligned. A pastoral response is not to offer kindness for kindness’s sake….”

Bishop Cameron, summing up the debate, described it as “the most difficult job I’ve ever been given”. He sought to assure the Evangelical constituency that he had not chosen to misrepresent or condemn their views.

“When I talked about my understanding of scripture, I was speaking autobiographically. It was not intended as rubbishing of conservative Evangelical thinking, theology, or ministry.

“But I don’t agree with you that the Bible can only be read as hostile to gay relationships. I refuse to be told that I am ‘unorthodox’. . . We should not ‘disfellowship’ each other because we do not agree on this issue. . . Christ compels me to stand with the vulnerable and oppressed. I will not betray them at any price in this world or the next.”

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Civil weddings will be permitted to take place outdoors for the first time in England and Wales from next month.

The ceremonies at approved premises such as hotels currently need to be in a room or other permanent structure.

The change, which also applies to civil partnerships, will allow outdoor ceremonies from July to next April, and will mean more guests can attend events affected by social-distancing rules.

A consultation will take place to see if the change should become permanent.

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Outdoor civil weddings and partnerships get the go ahead in England and Wales https://t.co/2ENLZE9n92

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 20, 2021

Every child in a Church in Wales School in north-east and mid Wales is to receive a gift from the Bishop of St Asaph to celebrate the work of the Welsh Bible Translators, more than 400 years ago.

It is part of plans by the Diocese of St Asaph to mark the 400th anniversary of Edmund Prys’ 1621 translation of the Psalms into Welsh suitable for congregational singing. Prys and seven out of the eight Bible Translators were born in the Diocese of St Asaph and are commemorated by a memorial outside St Asaph Cathedral.

In partnership with the Pocket Testament League UK, a charity which promotes the distribution of St John’s Gospel, the Bishop of St Asaph has commissioned a bespoke edition of the Gospel in Welsh and English to be given to all 6,000 church school pupils. The book includes an introduction from the Rt Revd Gregory Cameron and information explaining the importance of the Bible translators.

Bishop Gregory said, “Christians believe that the Bible contains God’s message to humanity, summed up in the person of Jesus Christ. The translation of the Bible into Welsh is a remarkable story of how people can achieve something great through their joint commitment and their desire to make the story of Jesus known more widely. The story of the translation is very much part of our story too, as it is rooted here in the diocese of St Asaph.

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The Archbishop of Wales will retire in May after four years as leader of the Church in Wales, it has been announced.

The Most Rev John Davies, the 13th man to hold the position, was appointed in 2017 and has also been bishop of Swansea and Brecon since 2008.

Mr Davies, 67, will retire from his roles as archbishop and bishop on 2 May.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he valued Mr Davies’s “wisdom, passion, skill and diplomacy”.

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Archbishop John Davies will stand down as head of the Church in Wales after four yearshttps://t.co/4SLYCqtnaX

— BBC Wales News (@BBCWalesNews) January 8, 2021

The Bishops of the Church in Wales have published their proposals to authorise formal blessings in church of same-sex partnerships and marriages.

A draft Bill that would permit the blessing in parish churches of same-sex couples after a civil partnership or civil wedding has been circulated to members of the Church’s Governing Body ahead of a debate in April.

In an explanatory memorandum, the Bishops acknowledge that scripture and Christian tradition have previously understood unions of one man and one woman as the only context for sexual relationships.

“However, with new social, scientific and psychological understandings of sexuality in the last one and a half centuries, we believe that same-sex relationships can be understood in a radically different way, and that the teaching of Scripture should therefore be re-interrogated,” the Bishops write.

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Church communities and people of faith must challenge the systems and structures that have allowed modern slavery to become the fastest-growing crime around the world, a panel of international experts and activists told a webinar hosted by the Church in Wales in advance of Modern Slavery Day on Sunday.

The speakers concluded that it had to be about more than raising awareness of something in which services and products used every day were implicated: manufacturing supply chains, casual labour, and sexual and criminal exploitation. Statutory systems were fragmented and not working well, despite the Modern Slavery Act and the introduction of the National Referral Mechanism, they said; “pitifully small” numbers of perpetrators were being brought to justice.

An estimated 40.3 million men, women, and children worldwide are estimated to be trapped in modern slavery, among them potentially up to 136,000 victims in the UK alone. “We are losing the battle,” the former Bishop of Derby, Dr Alastair Redfern, founder of the C of E’s Clewer Initiative on modern slavery, said. He described it as “the sharp end of inequality”. There was a “massively strange silence” among Christian people, he said, in a climate in which consumers wanted cheap goods and claimed rights without responsibilities.

Awareness was not enough, panellists said. Unity was the greatest weapon against trafficking, said Commissioner Christine MacMillan, who is the founder and director of the Salvation Army’s International Social Justice Commission, and chairs the World Evangelical Alliance’s Global Human Trafficking Task Force.

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An estimated 40.3 million men, women, and children worldwide are estimated to be trapped in modern slavery, among them potentially up to 136,000 victims in the UK alone https://t.co/RUqKfj8q1Q

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 15, 2020

Wales’ first bishop in a same-sex civil partnership has said she will not campaign for same-sex marriage in the Church in Wales.

Cherry Vann, who was consecrated as the Bishop of Monmouth on Sunday, said the church still had “a lot of thinking to do” about marriage.

Ms Vann, 60, said she hoped LGBT people would be able to see her appointment as a sign of hope.

She will be enthroned at Newport Cathedral on 1 February.

The Church in Wales does not conduct same sex marriages, but same-sex couples are permitted to be married in places of worship in Wales.

Read it all.

For the reasons given above the argument presented by the Bishop of Bangor in his letter is not convincing. He simply does not make out a convincing case for changing the Church’s teaching and practice.

Where he is right, however, is in saying that many people with same-sex attraction experience the Church as a hostile place. However, the proper way to address this is not to change the Church’s teaching.

As the Ed Shaw, himself same-sex attracted, argues in his important book The Plausibility Problem,[3] the problem lies not with the Church holding that sex should only take place within heterosexual marriage, but with the way in which people within the Church collude with the culture in suggesting that you can’t be happy without sex, value marriage and family life above singleness, and wrongly identify godliness with heterosexuality.

What the Church needs to do, he argues, is recapture the importance of celibacy and singleness and provide a place where everyone is valued, loved and supported regardless of their sexual attraction. That is what is needed, not same-sex marriage.

Read it all.

The point is that continuing to discern the will of God includes reading the Scriptures as well as other sources of authority such as reason, scientific evidence and in serious dialogue with other disciplines. This is part of our responsibility as Christians as we seek to understand the will of God and witness to our faith.

Over a period of time, in which I have ministered alongside those in same sex relationships and have wrestled with how to be faithful to God and open to the Spirit, I have come to believe that the Church should now fully include without distinction those who commit to permanent loving unions with a person of the same sex. I further believe that the best way to do this is for the Church to marry these people as we do with men and women.

This is not the teaching of the Church at this moment but I believe it is fully in keeping with our faith and orthodoxy. I believe it will strengthen our witness to a world which longs to see justice and fairness for all, regardless of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation, and cannot understand how the Church is still wrestling with an issue that most people have accepted long ago. Christians can seem uncaring, even cruel, and bizarrely obsessed with a limited range of issues so that everything else we say about God and hope and faith is marginalised. To put it bluntly, we are not believed and taken seriously.

Any change to official Church teaching will require the consent of the Church in Wales through its Governing Body. I realize that not everyone will take the position outlined above – and there are good arguments for developing the Church’s teaching in other ways, for example by introducing a service of life vows or revisiting the question of blessing same sex unions. This debate cannot be ignored but neither can it take place without wisdom, generosity and grace. I pray that it will engage you in a new way this year and that you will pray and reflect on how we can be faithful to God and strengthen out witness to Christ’s redeeming love.

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The Bishop of Bangor Andy John has cast his vote today and urges everyone else to get out and vote too pic.twitter.com/5U2TAyS7RM

— The Church in Wales (@ChurchinWales) May 7, 2015

The Church in Wales has announced a new £10 million GBP scheme to help its six dioceses fund new evangelism projects. The Church in Wales’ first ever Evangelism Fund will be launched this weekend with the aim of engaging “Welsh society with the claims of the Christian faith in vibrant and exciting ways.” The fund will provide grants of between £250,000 and £3 million, for diocesan projects that “will focus on people rather than buildings,” the Church in Wales said.

The fund will be managed by a committee with expertise in church growth and business ventures; and is being launched on Pentecost Sunday (20 May). Pentecost is traditionally regarded as the Church’s birthday, when Christians focus on sharing their faith and growth. This year, as in 2016 and 2017, it will come at the end of Thy Kingdom Come – a 10-day global wave of prayer focused on the church’s evangelism and witness.

“We are putting our money where our mouth is,” the Archbishop of Wales John Davies said. “We have long talked about growing the church and now we want to invest in projects across the country to enable that to happen. It is a radical answer to the decline we are experiencing in many places, and £10 million is a transforming amount.

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They six are: Huw Thomas, Leader of Cardiff Council; Auriol Miller, Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs; Simon Prince, former Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police; Roy Jenkins, BBC radio presenter; Harriet Morgan, a property lawyer at Geldards; and Gaynor Ford, a retired magistrate.

The Church in Wales may have to argue that better public services require people to pay “a bit more tax”, the Archbishop of Wales has said.

The Most Rev John Davies warned there were “dwindling services” and a “disintegration of communities”.

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Wales could soon run out of space to bury its dead, the Church in Wales has warned.

A number of cemeteries have run out of plots, with some closed to new burials, while others have just years left until they are full.

Alex Glanville, from the Church in Wales, said people could no longer take for granted that they would be buried in their communities.

On Thursday, Cardiff council’s cabinet agreed to spend £3m on a new cemetery.

Councillors approved plans for a new 12.5 acre cemetery about 650 metres from the existing Thornhill Cemetery.

The authority said it would provide burial space for the next 35-40 years.

Read it all.