CALLS TO EVIDENCE FAITH COMMUNITIES’ WORK IN COMMUNITY COHESION IN WALES
There are two opportunities currently ‘live’ to evidence the important role that communities of faith, including Christian churches, play in serving all local communities in Wales.
The first is an inquiry by the Senedd’s Equality and Social Justice Committee about social cohesion in Wales. As the committee explains, Welsh Government has had a series of programmes over many years designed to foster social cohesion – the bringing together of diverse sectors of the community to live and work together. These programmes have had a variety of different names and (small) funding streams attached to them. The latest forms part of the Welsh Government’s Strategic Equality Plan 2024-28. The final plan has yet to be published, despite the original intention that it should be implemented from 2024.
Cytûn contributed to consultation on this Plan, as it had to previous consultations, emphasising the important role that faith communities play in fostering social cohesion, and noting that this role is often downplayed in Welsh Government published strategies and consultations. The periodic portrayal by parts of the media and on social media of community tensions being based on religion has added to the importance of evidencing how the reverse is often true.
The unrest in Cardiff and Swansea in summer 2023 and in parts of England and Northern Ireland in summer 2024 illustrate the consequences of a lack of social cohesion, and particular groups can be scapegoated and targeted. Much of the work fostering cohesion is quiet and unpublicised, but Cytûn is keen to contribute some examples to this latest inquiry. We would welcome contributions of case studies of work in local communities – to add to those of which we are already aware. This can be in the form of links to already published work, websites, posts on social media, etc. As the call for evidence closes on February 14, we need to hear from you by February 7, please.

Nathan Sadler, Public policy officer in Wales for Evangelical Alliance introduces the second opportunity to evidence how we work in communities. Cytûn warmly encourages all its member churches and organisations to participate – it need only take a few minutes!
We’re delighted to share an important milestone with you – the launch of our Faith in Wales survey! This marks a pivotal moment for churches and faith communities across the nation as we come together to reflect on the state of faith in Wales today.
The survey is a vital part of preparing our updated Faith in Wales report, which will provide fresh insights into how faith shapes lives, communities and culture across the country. The original 2008 edition highlighted the incredible work of churches and faith organisations in Welsh communities, and this year’s update will capture the progress, challenges and opportunities we face as we look ahead.
We need your voice! If you are a faith leader, your participation is crucial to ensuring the report accurately represents the lived experience of Christians and other faith communities in Wales. By taking just a few minutes to complete the survey, you’ll help shape conversations with the Welsh Government and others about the role of faith in Wales for years to come. If you are not a faith leader, you can join in by encouraging your leader to complete the survey, in English or Welsh, here: https://www.eauk.org/about-us/nations/wales/faith-in-wales-survey.
Closing date: 17 February 2025.
CHURCH AND COMMUNITY SEEK TO BUILD A COMPASSIONATE PENARTH

The recently formed Compassionate Penarth community group hopes to help residents of Penarth and the surrounding areas to be more comfortable and informed when talking about end of life decisions, dying, death and grief. These may seem daunting subjects to discuss, but we know that when people feel more comfortable talking about such experiences, they are more able to get the support they need and are better equipped to help others.
For someone living with a terminal illness and the people who are caring for them, having open discussions about what matters most can aid with planning and influencing care. It can give focus to how someone wants to spend their time, celebrate their life, and talk about what a good death means to them.
Bereavement and grief can feel overwhelming and isolating. Knowing there is support in the community and how to find it, doesn’t take away the pain but it can help to navigate one of the most difficult experiences of our lives.

Penarth Town Council, Marie Curie and the Methodist Housing Association, alongside other organisations and individuals, are working together to remove the taboo of talking about these important chapters.
In early 2024 Karen Jennings, the chaplain for the Methodist Housing Association in Penarth and Alison Fiander, a retired doctor and volunteer with Stanwell Road Baptist church, were already facilitating ‘The Bereavement Journey’ in Penarth to support people working through and processing grief, when they met Luke Conlon, a Buddhist chaplain. Luke facilitated conversations with Penarth Town Council and Marie Curie to increase awareness and understanding of some of the local knowledge and support available.

Through our individual experiences we felt more could be done to support people at this difficult time of their lives. Together we arranged an event for ‘Dying Matters’ week, which included a range of information providers talking about wills, end of life care, how to add creativity to a funeral or memorial stone, processing grief, what to do about pets after a death and much more besides. In response to the interest received, we decided to formally establish ourselves as a community group.
The group has developed a Compassionate Charter for Penarth and is making resources available via social media here https://linktr.ee/comppenarth.
Plans for 2025 include offering community talks to interested groups, holding another Dying Matters week event, a networking event and signposting people to information and support. With sufficient community interest we hope to provide a range of more diverse activities such as art or photography exhibitions on these important themes and community discussion groups.
If you would like more information, would like to join the group or have an event you would like us to attend please contact Compassionatepenarth@gmail.com
Julie Skelton, Compassionate Penarth
Pictures courtesy of Compassionate Penarth. The bottom picture shows group members meeting Stephen Doughty, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth
Inquiry investigates impact of Covid-19 on places of worship and faith groups

Following the official opening of Module 10 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, the inquiry team has invited the Churches Together bodies across the UK to attend, with others, to a roundtable event to discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and government restrictions on faith groups and places of worship in the UK, on 20 February 2025.
Although the application by the Churches’ Legislation Advisory Service (CLAS), of which we are part, for ‘core participant status’ in this module was rejected, Cytûn welcomes this opportunity to speak directly with the Inquiry team about our experiences, and to seek advice on the submission of further evidence.
Ecumenical bodies will submit three pieces of already published research to assist the discussion:
- Cytûn’s National Conversation Report (March 2021)
- Adapt and Be Flexible: The Mission Continues (January 2021) prepared by Brendan Research for ACTS (Churches together in Scotland) and the Scottish Church Leaders’ Forum
- People Still Need Us (May 2020) and Something Other than a Building (January 2021) by Gladys Daniel for the Irish Council of Churches
Although attendance at this roundtable is by invitation only, there is no restriction on who can submit evidence to the Module, and both Cytûn and CLAS will be doing so on behalf of our member churches and organisations. Individuals can contribute through the Every Story Matters scheme. Closing dates for the submission of evidence (probably around autumn 2025) and the dates of the oral hearings (early 2026) will be announced in due course.
Meanwhile, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy MP, has confirmed that a COVID-19 Day of Reflection will take place on Sunday 9 March 2025 to remember the pandemic and its impact on communities across the UK. To mark the fifth anniversary of the pandemic, people are invited to come together to remember and reflect on this unique period of our history as well as their own experiences.
The day will be an opportunity for the public to remember and commemorate those who lost their lives during the pandemic, reflect on the sacrifices made and the impact on our daily lives, and pay tribute to the work of health and social care staff, frontline workers, researchers and all those who volunteered and showed acts of kindness during this unprecedented time. As it falls on a Sunday, churches may wish to consider incorporating elements of the Day of Reflection in their worship.
NATION OF SANCTUARY AWARDS
The Welsh Refugee Council has announced that nominations are now open for the Nation of Sanctuary Awards. The 2025 Awards celebrate individuals, organizations and communities transforming Wales into the world’s first Nation of Sanctuary, as advocated and supported by Cytûn over many years. There are many people in member churches involved in welcoming refugees, and is an opportunity to nominate them.
This year two new categories are introduced.
- The Equalities Champion Award, which recognizes those who support refugees and asylum seekers from underrepresented groups, including the LGBTQ+ and disabled communities.
- The Academic Achievement Award – Honours outstanding educational achievements, reflecting dedication to learning and overcoming challenges to achieve excellence.
Nominations are open until 28 February 2025. It takes 15–20 minutes to nominate via the online form. Nominees must consent to their nomination.
The special awards night on June 16 at the Coal Exchange Hotel, Cardiff, will celebrate the extraordinary achievements of asylum seekers in Wales, as well as the outstanding contributions of those who help bring the vision of a Nation of Sanctuary to life.
NEWS FROM THE SENEDD
Registering visitor accommodation in Wales
The Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill, introduced in November 2024, is currently being examined by the Senedd’s Finance Committee. Media coverage has focused on the power for Local Authorities to raise a levy on overnight accommodation, but when presenting evidence on behalf of the churches, Cytûn emphasised that our main concern is the implications of having to register accommodation in order to operate legally, and that the register could be the basis – through further legislation – to set obligatory minimum standards. This could jeopardise accommodation in some religious communities and church buildings, designed to be simple and cheap, or accommodation provided charitably for families who could not otherwise have a holiday.
We are pleased that the Bill limits the obligation to register to accommodation provided “in the course of trade or business”. We have discussed with the Chair of the Finance Committee the need to clarify during the scrutiny process the limits of that requirement in relation to, for example, accommodation provided by a charity when the visitor makes a voluntary donation.
Registering child care in Wales
Cytûn is grateful to our member churches for providing detailed evidence of safeguarding arrangements for their work with children, as the Welsh Government reviews what types of educational, recreational and care sessions for children under 12 would need to be registered in future. Currently, most sessions of less than 2 hours, or providing “coaching or tuition” in “religious or cultural studies” (eg Sunday schools) are exempt from the requirement to register. Cytûn has been involved in discussions about this with the Welsh Government for the past year, and it is expected that a public consultation on plans to change the exemptions will begin during the spring. We will notify our members when that happens.
Recommendations to enable the recall of Members of the Senedd who offend
In the Senedd election in May 2026, a new voting system will be introduced which will give each voter one vote, for a list of candidates from one party or group. Voters will not be able to choose between individual candidates. This has caused concern – including on the part of the Bishop of St Asaph – about reducing the accountability of individual MSs to their constituents.
One aspect of this arises when an individual MS misbehaves. The Senedd’s Standards of Conduct Committee has tried to address that concern in its recent report, recommending introducing a procedure for electors to recall their MS. They recommend that if an MS were to be punished – whether by a criminal court or by the Senedd itself – beyond a certain threshold (yet to be determined), a ‘remove and replace ballot’ would be held. This would be similar to a by-election, held on a specific day under normal voting arrangements, with one question on the ballot paper, namely whether the MS should continue or be replaced by the next appropriate candidate on the party’s list. The Committee also recommends that the Senedd could, by a majority, call a ‘remove and replace ballot’ as a sanction against an MS who has breached the rules of the Senedd.
It would be necessary to draw up specific legislation to implement this and present it through the normal procedure of the Senedd before the end of the current session in March 2026. In the meantime, the Committee continues to consider recommendations for the introduction of an offence of deliberate deception, when an MS or a candidate deliberately deceives the electorate. That work is not expected to be implemented by May 2026.

PRAY FOR SCHOOLS IN WALES
Pray for Schools Wales, under the auspices of CARE, meet regularly for online prayer. The next session is on Wednesday 5th February at 12.30pm. A Welsh breakout room and bilingual slides are planned. Please register on Eventbrite and you will automatically be sent the Zoom link the week before.
NEWS FROM WESTMINSTER
Assisted Dying Bill inquiry opens
The House of Commons Bill Committee for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, aimed at legalising Assisted Dying in England and Wales has issued a call for evidence. The Committee’s deliberations began on January 21, and oral evidence will be heard on the 28, 29 and 30 January – including a representative from the Senedd on January 30. Some of this initial debate took place behind closed doors, despite the opposition of some members, and an effort by some MPs to secure more oral evidence from experts who would be opposed to the Bill failed.
The call for evidence emphasises that written evidence will have a better chance of influencing the Bill if presented at the earliest opportunity. Evidence will be published on the UK Parliament website, but it would be useful for Cytûn, if churches submitting evidence would also copy it to us. The Radar Group (UK church and society officers) and the Laser Group (the equivalent group for Wales, convened by Cytûn) will keep this issue on their agenda so that churches and Christian organisations can update each other about the steps they take.
The House of Commons Library has produced a useful summary of the Bill. The Hansard Society is monitoring the progress of the Bill, and has published a report raising concerns about the implications of some of the powers which it delegates to ministers, such as specifying medicines that could be used to assist dying, and the use of the National Health Service for this purpose.
Climate and Nature Bill fails
A number of Cytûn members, including the Society of Friends, the Church in Wales and ARocha UK (EcoChurch) have been promoting the Climate and Nature Bill. This private member’s bill, introduced in various forms in previous sessions of parliament, would have brought into domestic law the climate and nature targets agreed by successive UK governments at international conferences (COPs); placed a duty on the UK Government to implement a strategy to achieve those targets; established a Climate and Nature Assembly to advise the government in creating that strategy; and given duties to the Committee on Climate Change and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee regarding the strategy and targets. The Senedd would have been able to adopt the targets and strategy for areas of devolved competence in Wales by a majority vote.
In a passionate debate on January 24, the sponsor of the Bill – Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage – agreed not to push it to a vote, in return for promises of discussions with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband MP. As there was no vote, the Bill has not been defeated, but in practice the lack of a vote means that it will not progress further during the current session of Parliament. This will not affect the ability of the Senedd to introduce measures relating to climate and nature for Wales within its own legislative competence.
Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme renewed for one year
Following representations by Cytûn and many Christian churches, Chris Bryant, MP for Rhondda & Ogmore and Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism in the UK Government, has made a written statement on the continuation of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, which reads (in part) as follows:
The Government is extending the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme until 31 March 2026, the end of this Spending Review period. This will continue to enable religious organisations to claim grants covering eligible VAT costs paid towards repairs and renovations.
… Against a tough financial background and bearing in mind a wide range of competing priorities for expenditure within DCMS, we have made the difficult decision to implement an annual limit of £25,000 on the amount individual places of worship can claim in the coming year, and to limit the fund to £23 million. … Based on previous scheme data we expect 94% of claims to be unaffected by this change.
Cytûn has written to Mr Bryant thanking him for the announcement, and asking that the scheme be made permanent, so that churches can plan their repair and renovation work in advance with confidence.
CYTÛN AT 2025 SUMMER EVENTS
There was great support from Cytûn member churches and organisations for our witness events at the Urdd National Eisteddfod, the Royal Welsh Show and the National Eisteddfod during 2024. It is now time to plan for 2025. 3 meetings have been organized for the local churches, namely:

Urdd Eisteddfod Dur a Môr in Margam – May 26-31.
A meeting will be held on Tuesday 4th March at 7.00 in Capel y Nant, Clydach.
The Royal Welsh Show in Llanelwedd – 21-24 July.
A meeting will be held on March 4th at 1.00pm in the Church Centre on the Showground.
The National Eisteddfod in Wrexham – August 2-9.
A meeting will be held on Wednesday 12th March at 7.00pm in Capel y Groes, Wrexham.
A warm welcome to everyone who wants to be part of the preparation and planning work. We appeal for support especially from the local churches.
CAMPAIGNING FOR PEACE YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Tonyfelin Baptist Church, Caerphilly kindly hosted the first of the public meetings to mark the centenary of the Welsh Churches’ Peace Appeal to the churches of the United States of America, on Sunday January 26. This was the precise centenary of the death of one of the great peace activists of the 20th century, the Rev. Gwilym Davies, born in Bedlinog. With the support of the local history societies of Gelligaer and Merthyr Tydfil, local churches and our partners at the Welsh Centre for International Affairs (the Temple of Peace), four speakers introduced Gwilym Davies’ notable contribution in terms of peace and ecumenism, and how that can be an encouragement for us today. Aled Eirug placed Gwilym in the context of the wider contemporary peace movement; Angharad Wyn Jones from Urdd Gobaith Cymru presenting a text prepared by Siân Lewis about his contribution to the annual Peace and Goodwill Message from the Youth of Wales which continues to this day; Siân Rhiannon talked about the work of his wife, Mary Ellis; and Gethin Rhys presented the story of the Churches’ Appeal, Gwilym Davies’ trip to the USA in 1925 and the commemorations planned for 2025. There is a video of the session (held in Welsh) here, and two other videos in English and much more information is on the Cytûn website.
CONTACTING CYTÛN’S POLICY OFFICER
Parch./Revd Gethin Rhys – Swyddog Polisi/Policy Officer
Cytûn – Eglwysi ynghyd yng Nghymru/Churches together in Wales
Registered office: Room 3.3, Hastings House, Fitzalan Court, Cardiff CF24 0BL
Mobile: 07889 858062 E-mail: gethin@cytun.cymru
www.cytun.co.uk @CytunNew www.facebook.com/CytunNew
Hapus i gyfathrebu yn Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg.
Happy to communicate in Welsh and English
Cytûn is a registered company in England and Wales | Number: 05853982 | Registered name: “Cytûn: Eglwysi Ynghyd yng Nghymru/Churches Together in Wales Limited” |
Cytûn is a registered charity | Number: 1117071.
Publication date: January 29 2025. The next Bulletin will be published on March 26 2025.