World Cup Churches 8. Wales

It's World Cup year - taking place in November/December in Qatar instead of the Northern Hemisphere summer as it has always previously done.  Heading round the 32 qualifying countries I will pick out one church in each one.  I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking.  This is a exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.

In my look at the USA (Previous blog click here) I referenced a Presbyterian Church that had closed.  As it turns out the next World Cup nation - Wales - also features a Presbyterian Church that has closed.  Let me take you deep into North West Wales beyond Snowdonia, and to Edern, a village that, together with its surrounding farms and hamlets, has had a population of 300-400 for the last 150 years.

It has a small parish (Anglican) church as befits an isolated rural community.  

It also has - or perhaps we must say had - Edern Chapel.

Look, it's not that there are no alive and interesting churches in Wales, but Edern Chapel, which closed in May this year, represents something profound about Christianity in Wales.  You may think that this is the sadness that all the chapels are closing down (many are).  But my reason for choosing Edern is not mainly that - it is the amazing testimony that it gives to what God has done in Wales.

Think about it for a moment.  From the moment it was built to the day it closed this chapel (in a village, remember, that also has a small parish church) could fit in the population of the village and surrounding area more than twice.  For the small London suburb where my current church is that would be the equivalent of a Stadium Church seating 55000.

If we had such a church it would certainly raise the question, 'Why?'.  The answer is Revival.  A community and area so saturated with the Gospel and desire for prayer and preaching that people would seek out opportunities to do it in vast numbers in their own and neighbouring areas on any or every free moment of a day or week (of which there wouldn't have been many).  

Just by being there this Chapel has continued to tell the story of great works, not of architects and builders (though it is stunningly beautiful inside), but great works of God.

Wales may not be encouraging now, but its monumental moments with God are still told in a thousand communities in impossible buildings like this.