Sir,

I am constantly told that religion or should I say Christianity is on the decline, with churches and chapels closing because of falling numbers attending. I do not dispute statistics, but I do claim that they only tell us half the story. Ever since man moved away from animal and started walking on two legs we have seen religion forming part of mankind’s life. It took many forms, with some worshipping the moon, others the sun, to only name two.

It is only after the birth of Jesus Christ 2018 years ago that we have seen some uniformity developing and progress has been very slow with much division and bloodshed. Christian worshippers have strong views and are not very easily swayed away from their conviction.

Henry VIII did not like to keep his wives for long and as king he thought he had the divine right to rule his way, but when he wanted a divorce and had to take on the Catholic Church, he found great resistance and the only way forward was to break away from the existing church and create the Church of England.

There was very strong resistance among the people and we saw chapels being built in large numbers at the expense of the people and, although they did not have the money, they felt so strongly that they were prepared to make many financial sacrifices to break away and worship as the wanted and not the way dictated by the crown.

Although the king and His daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, tried very hard to get the people to accept the Church of England and even fined people for not attending the new church on Sunday, some of my family and many others felt so strongly, that rather than pay the fine they emigrated to America.

Those that remained learned to live with each other and today we even hold joint services, which I have very strong views on, and falling numbers calls for more co-operation between the churches. I am sorry to say, and I do not like to admit this, but our religion does not have such strong conviction over us as it did centuries ago.

With falling numbers some tend to say ‘why bother’. This I do not agree with and believe very strongly if only a few attend we should hold a service. There is more to a service than the number that attend.

Sir Eric Howells,

Llannddewi Velfrey.