Pembrokeshire SACRE Annual Lecture 2009
“Journey of a lifetime - Back to the Rhondda” Rev. Dr. John Morgans Past Wales Moderator of the United Reform Church Former President Council of Churches in Wales
5.00 p.m. Thursday 26th November 2009 County Hall, Haverfordwest
John and Norah Morgans turned the mountain-top Rhondda village of Penrhys into a nationally known centre for inter-church and community work attracting leading politicians and successive waves of international volunteers.
The young John Morgans grew up in Tylorstown, the valley community at the foot of Penrhys.
It was many years before, following a distinguished academic career, extensive Christian Ministry and church leadership in Wales, he returned as the Rev Dr John Morgans to devote his life to the deprived, mainly council estate community of Penrhys, where many families knew third generation unemployment.
During John’s time at Penrhys he led the conversion of a derelict maisonette block into a thriving community centre with a café, launderette, nearly-new shop, and homework club, ranged around accommodation for church workers and the new Llanfair Uniting Church, supported by eight church denominations.
Other activities included a youth twinning programme, which was developed with Hungary and a volunteer programme to bring over young people from Madagascar.
John and his wife Norah, who worked closely with him, were awarded OBEs in 1995 in recognition of their work.
The lecture will be of interest to all who care about the social and spiritual needs of society and will highlight the way churches and secular groups can work together to make a difference in the community.
For more information contact
Donna Hooper, Pembrokeshire County Council 01437775356 Biographical Details
John Ivor Morgans was born in 1939 in Tylorstown Rhondda. He attended local primary schools and completed his secondary education in the Rhondda County Grammar School. Porth. In 1957 he entered the University College of Swansea and graduated with a BA in 1960. In that year he entered the Congregational Memorial College, Swansea and graduated with the Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Wales in 1963. He studied at Mansfield College, Oxford and received the Master of Letters from Oxford University in 1968 for his research on the life and work of William Erbery. He acted as a Teaching Fellow at Hartford Seminary Foundation, Connecticut from 1965 to 1967 when he returned to Wales. Subsequently he completed his Hartford Ph.D. on the National and International Aspects of Puritan Eschatology. He was married in 1964 to Norah Evans and they have three children. In 1967 he was ordained to the Christian Ministry and subsequently served in the Congregational Churches at Llanidloes and Glanhafren in Montgomeryshire. He had an active ministry at Manselton, Swansea between 1974-1977. He was then appointed by the United Reformed Church as the Moderator (or Superintendent) of their Churches in Wales, and he served in this role from 1977 to 1989. In that capacity he worked at local, national, and international spheres in pursuit of universal values and human rights. With other church leaders, he sought reconciliation during the mining dispute of 1985/5 and in that capacity addressed Cabinet Ministers, the leaders of the employers and the Trade Unions. He was appointed President of the Council of Churches for Wales (1986- 1990) and was involved in peace and anti-apartheid campaigns as well as building church links with Eastern Europe, notably Hungary. Following his prominent role in Wales as a church leader during the 1980s, he returned to his role as Minister in Penrhys in the Rhondda; his period as Minister in this isolated and neglected community has been a revelation. He has succeeded in building a church of a new kind involving eight denominations. This new church addresses the social and spiritual needs of a council housing estate with high unemployment and a range of other social and spiritual problems. He is a founder of the Penrhys Community Partnership, an organisation which he chaired until his retirement in February of 2003. This initiative has brought considerable investment in the community from both the private and public sectors with a leading role being played by the Welsh National Assembly and a number of National Charities and Businesses. For his services to Penrhys he was awarded the OBE in the 1995 New Year’s Honours List , Honorary Fellowships of the University of Wales, Swansea (1995) and Trinity College Carmarthen (2000) and the Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. He and his wife Norah retired from active ministry in 2004. He and his wife, Norah published, ‘Journey of a Lifetime’, a 650 page book which comprises extracts from John’s diaries of 5½ million words from 1952 to his retirement in 2004.