Welsh Church Act 1914
The Welsh Church Act 1914 is an Act under which the Church of England was separated and disestablished in Wales and Monmouthshire, leading to the creation of the Church in Wales. The act had long been demanded by the Nonconformist element in Wales, which composed the majority of the population and which resented paying taxes to the Anglican Church of England. It was sponsored by the Liberal party and opposed by the Conservative party.
The Act, which took effect in 1920, was a controversial measure and was passed by the House of Commons under the provisions of the Parliament Act 1911, which minimized the ability of the House of Lords to block it. The main financial terms were that the Church no longer receive tithe money, but kept all its churches, properties and glebes.
The Bill was politically and historically significant as one of the first pieces of legislation to apply solely to Wales as opposed to the wider legal entity of England and Wales.
In Wales the passing of the Bill was the culmination of a long campaign which had begun in the mid-nineteenth century, led largely by Welsh Nonconformists such as Calvinistic Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians, and other Protestant groups which objected to paying tithes to the Church of England. The campaign was later strongly supported by the patriotic Cymru Fydd movement.
English Catholic author G. K. Chesterton ridiculed the passion that was generated by the Bill in his poem :s:Antichrist, or the Reunion of Christendom: An Ode|Antichrist, or the Reunion of Christendom: An Ode, repeatedly addressing F. E. Smith, one of the chief opponents of the act.
Owing to the outbreak of the First World War in August, the Act was given Royal Assent on 18 September simultaneously with another controversial bill, the Government of Ireland Act 1914. In addition, Royal Assent was also given to the Suspensory Act 1914 which stated that the two other Acts would not come into force for the remainder of the war. On 31 March 1920 most of the Welsh part of the Church of England became the Church in Wales, an independent province of the Anglican Communion, with six dioceses led by the Archbishop of Wales. However, 19 out of 20 church parishes which spanned the Welsh/English border overwhelmingly voted in a referendum to remain within the Church of England. For example, St Stephen's Church, Old Radnor is part of the diocese of Hereford, England.
The Welsh Church Act and the Government of Ireland Act were the only acts enacted by invoking the Parliament Act 1911 until the War Crimes Act in 1991.
