“It pleased the Lord to choose this dark corner of the land to place his name here and to honour us, undeserving creatures, with the happiness of being the first in all these parts among whom was practised the glorious ordinance of baptism, and to gather here the first church of baptized believers [in Wales].”
So wrote John Myles about Ilston, where the first Baptist church in Wales was planted in 1649 as part of a wider Baptist church planting movement. This movement had established congregations across South Wales within a decade, laying the foundations for Baptist witness in the country that has grown over the centuries since.
In our 2021 Ilston service, held online in early November, we turned to look back at these early gospel pioneers and the lessons we can learn from them today. Watch Dr Densil Morgan in the above video as he outlines the motivation of Myles and his co-workers in the 1650s and the fervour of those times.