300-year-old church closes as membership drops to one

A 305-year-old church in Wales has closed after its membership fell from hundreds of worshippers to one elderly man.

Tabernacle Chapel United Reformed Church in Rhayader, Powys, once attracted about 400 people at its peak in the 1830s. However, years of declining attendance left 86-year-old Mike Bennett as its only active member. 

Bennett started attending the church when he was five. He remembers about 50 people taking part in weekly services during his childhood.

As the congregation shrank, he took on several duties to keep the chapel open. He served as general secretary, organist and pulpit supply secretary. He also maintained the church grounds.

Bennett became treasurer after Dawn Jones, who previously held the position, died in July.

He said the closure was painful because of his lifelong connection to the chapel. However, he could no longer manage its many responsibilities while caring for his wife, Joyce.

Joyce had cleaned the church for 50 years but stopped attending services because of poor health. Until recently, the chapel had three regular worshippers.

Bennett said nobody remained to take over the work. He also questioned the cost of maintaining the building for such a small congregation.

“Churches are all about the people in them,” he said.

The congregation first held services at a farmhouse. Founder John Hanmer later built the chapel in 1721 to accommodate the growing number of worshippers.

The Birmingham Corporation Water Department later funded the chapel’s Sunday school. The institution also donated a wooden chair used by King Edward VII during the official opening of the Elan Valley dams in 1904.

The town of Rhayader is also the birthplace of Robert Jermain Thomas, a Welsh missionary credited with helping to spread Christianity in Korea through the distribution of Bibles in Pyongyang.

Korean Christians still visit the chapel to honour Thomas and recognise it as a sister church. Bennett said one visiting Korean congregation has more than 2,000 members.

The chapel’s closure adds to the decline facing many historic places of worship in Wales. About a quarter of the country’s historic churches and chapels closed during the past decade.