THE Church in Wales has a major part to play within the lifetime of the nation, and must adapt and develop “ever more courageously” because it responds to latest challenges, its Archbishop, the Most Revd Andrew John, told the Governing Body meeting in a presidential address in Llandudno, on Wednesday.
He had earlier reflected on the nation’s identity as something that “shifts and grows, forged in triumphs and tragedies alike — within the coal dust of the valleys, the scars of the quarry, within the defiance of Owain Glyndwr, within the sad memory of Aberfan. . . What is true for the nation can also be true for the Church, shaped by revivals, a wealthy hymnody, the stories of saints and pioneers who founded communities of religion across the nation.”
Calling for the Church to change into a more skilled, grounded, compassionate, connected and artistic Church, he first highlighted safeguarding. “At the guts of our calling is the care of others, especially the vulnerable,” he said. “If we fail here, we fail in every single place.
“So, our aim is to create a protected Church where good safeguarding practice is embedded within the very DNA of our life together — where it becomes instinctive, reflexive, woven into our ministry at every level, in a way that makes it harder to cover abuse and wherein positive behaviours change into normative. . . We must get this right, and we should be rigorous.”
Bishops within the Church in Wales have launched into consultations on the liturgical provision for same-sex couples: a process the Archbishop commended as “respectful listening. . . If we’re to walk together through complex matters, it must begin with the humility to listen well. Developing this mindset is to recognise we want to do discernment higher.”
Addressing the need to be a more grounded Church, he referred to, as “a particularly positive experience”, the Church in Wales sponsored summit on restoring Welsh rivers, which brought together 90 delegates from across different sectors in November 2024 to share a standard concern (News, 17 April and eight November 2024).
“What that summit revealed is that the Church has a major role to play within the lifetime of the nation,” he said. “We can bring people together. We have been told we’ve a singular role and place. We will help align values and efforts. We can encourage collaboration where there might otherwise be fragmentation.
“The summit was not a one-off. It was an announcement that the Church in Wales might be present in the general public square, attentive to the cry of the earth as much because the cry of the people of Wales. And, in 2026, we’ll construct on this with a latest summit, exploring how the Church can speak and act properly within the face of pressing societal changes.”
The Archbishop went on to explain artificial intelligence (AI) — a subject on which he had spoken on the European Peace Conference in Paris in September 2024 — as “one of the vital complex and fast-moving problems with our time. . . AI holds enormous promise for health care, education, even climate motion.
“But with no shared ethical framework and regulatory oversight, it could deepen inequalities and speed up harm, including the event of awful and destructive weaponry.
“We lack what the late Pope Francis has called for: an internationally agreed ethical framework with the ability to carry developers and nations accountable, and an oversight arrangement with power to compel compliance. . . We have to see the world, and each other, through the eyes of religion.”
Calling for a more compassionate Church, he welcomed the leader of the Sant’ Egidio community’s Humanitarian Corridors programme, Dr Monica Attias, describing her as “one of the vital remarkable human beings I even have ever met”. She embodied “the balance of devotion and motion, prayer and protest, stillness and solidarity. . . We must urge our governments to prioritise the plight and wishes of those that are most vulnerable, whether in these lands and abroad.”
Declaring himself “deeply blessed “ by the ministry of the RC Archbishop of Cardiff-Menevia, the Most Revd Mark O’Toole, who had preached on the opening service that morning, he commended Archbishop O’Toole’s “warmth, openness, and commitment to working with Churches across the traditions” as one which had allowed the Church in Wales to “reset relationships and forge latest paths”.
He continued: “We usually are not alone in our witness; and we’re discovering and developing, I feel, a latest sort of ecumenism in Wales: one built on friendship, humility, and shared mission.”
There were signs, he concluded, that the Church in Wales was finding latest ways to be church — faithful to tradition, yet unafraid of innovation. “It could be a mistake to pit parochial ministry against pioneering ministry,” he said.
“The truth is, most of our ministry today is each. It is local and imaginative. Grounded and experimental. Ministry-area ministry is commonly profoundly pioneering, and pioneering draws on our inherited faith. And that is precisely correctly.”
