Have we forgotten the songs that made Wales? Event celebrates Welsh hymns

Adam Johannes

Hymns once rang out from chapels, schools, rugby grounds, and informal gatherings, shaping Welsh life far beyond Sunday worship. Today, however, there are concerns that a defining part of the nation’s shared identity is slipping away.

Now a community in Pembrokeshire hopes to push back against that loss by celebrating what organisers describe as “the rich and distinctive tradition of Welsh hymn singing and sacred song.”

‘Celebrating Welsh Hymnody and Song: Caniadaeth y Cysegr yn Sir Benfro’ will take place at Canolfan Bethlehem in Trefdraeth (Newport) on Sunday 15 February at 3pm

The venue itself is central to the occasion. Canolfan Bethlehem, a Grade II listed former chapel, was purchased by the local community and is now being lovingly reimagined as a volunteer-run heritage, culture, and arts centre.

Over the last year, it has hosted more than 30 talks, musical events, and craft fairs, breathing new life into a building once shaped by song and gathering.

The event will shine a light on Pembrokeshire’s important contribution to hymnody and to the wider musical and cultural life of Wales.

A Cymanfa Ganu, literally a “singing festival”, is a gathering devoted to sacred hymns sung in four-part harmony, usually led by a choral conductor.

Emerging in the mid-nineteenth century, the movement became a defining feature of Welsh life, drawing large congregations across the country and taking on a particularly strong character in north Pembrokeshire.

Though the tradition endures in some areas, it has declined in recent years, giving a fresh impetus to efforts to reflect upon and renew a heritage that once lay at the heart of communal Wales.

Changing

The afternoon will be led by Ceri Wyn Richards, who will explore the lives and work of Pembrokeshire’s hymn writers, poets, and composers, along with the chapels, places and spaces that inspired them.

Moving between local communities and wider cultural currents, her talk will show how words and melodies born in this western corner of Wales came to be sung far beyond the county’s boundaries.

Ceri Wyn Richards brings a long and distinguished career in television, radio, and academia. In the decade before her retirement, she produced Caniadaeth y Cysegr, the BBC’s longest-running religious programme, first broadcast in 1942 and widely regarded as the forerunner of Songs of Praise.

During her years with the series, she observed at close hand the changing patterns of worship and the shifting place of congregational singing in Welsh life.

The gathering will also spotlight three literary voices whose words have intertwined with the living pulse of Welsh song: W. Rhys Nicholas (1914–1996), poet, congregational minister, and one of the most influential Welsh hymnwriters of the late twentieth century; Waldo Williams (1904–1971), poet of pacifism and community, whose words continue to resonate; and Eirwyn George (b. 1936), a contemporary writer, poet, and prolific author deeply rooted in Welsh cultural traditions.

It will highlight unexpected ways hymn tunes have influenced popular music, showing that these familiar melodies continue to touch hearts and inspire listeners today.

The afternoon continues the journey of Canolfan Bethlehem, bringing voices, stories, and shared listening back into its walls. Welsh translation will be available, and organisers say “a warm welcome is extended to all”‘

Celebrating Welsh Hymnody and Song: Caniadaeth y Cysegr yn Sir Benfro’ takes place at Canolfan Bethlehem in Trefdraeth (Newport) on Sunday 15 February at 3pm. All are welcome.