ABSTRACT
I f the desire for reunion and zeal for missions are two of the marked tendencies of recent years, another may be taken to be the desire to free the Church from excessive interference on the part of the State. Sometimes the State itself takes the initiative and rids itself of a burdensome connexion. This occurred in Ireland, where the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869 put an end to the anomaly by which a minority Church alone received official recognition. It occurred also in Wales. An Act for the disestablishment of the Welsh Church was passed in 1912, but its operation was delayed by the outbreak of the Great War, and the Church was not actually disestablished until 192o. Since then it has been organised as a separate province under its own archbishop and governing body. The opportunity of refashioning its organisation has brought with it a considerable improvement in its financial position, in spite of some temporary hardship; and its increased efficiency may be judged both from the fact that it has provided itself with two new dioceses and that its number of communicants shows an annual increase.
