Amazing Chapel Scene

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 22

Amazing Chapel Scene

Pastor Dragged from His Sunday School

■ EMBERS of a Welsh chapel at Bryncetbin, near Bridgend, are anxiously awaiting the outcome of a dispute which on a recent Sunday had its culmination in an extraordinary scene in the course of which the Rev. Trefor Bowen, the pastor, was alleged to have been forcibly ejected from the church by two deacons. Trouble between the parties, the actual cause of which is not known, but which is of several months standing, led to the pastor sending in his resignation to the elders of the chapel. According to Mr. Bowen,' he took this course to ascertain the feeling of the congregation in the matter, expecting a vote on its acceptance or rejection. He complains, however, that the resignation has never been read out at any church meeting, and, consequently, no opportunity has been afforded the church members of voting upon it. Locked Doors Mr. Bowen, it appears, was present at Sunday-school recently, and was asked by one of the deacons to leave the building. He refused, and on again being requested to take his departure made it clear that it was his intention to remain. Thereupon, it is stated, the deacon tried to pull him from his seat, and on failing secured the aid of another deacon who had hastened on the scene. Mr. Bowen was then, so it is said, seized by both feet and dragged along the aisle of the chapel to within a few feet of the door. Having seen him off the premises the deacons, who had previously sent the children from the church, summoned the teachers and the.' adult members of the meeting and all left the chapel together, the deacons locking the doors and retaining the keys. In the evening when the chapel members gathered for the evening service, the doors were still locked and the pastor held a meeting outside, at the end of which people who were strangers to the congregation indicated their intention of joining the church. “Our congregation,” said Mr. Bowen in an interview, “was a very mixed one, and included women wearing their aprons and men in their shirtsleeves.” The deacons’ version of the affair is that Mr. Bowen had sent in his resignation in writing and therefore could no longer be regarded as the pastor of the chapel of which he had been in charge for the previous 18 months. New Preachers Engaged One of the deacons, Mr. Thomas Howell, declared that Mr. 80-wen had announced from the pulpit of the Nazareth Chapel his intention of preaching no more in Bryncethin. For the following three Sundays other preachers had to be engaged, although Mr. Bowen had continued to attend the services. A suggestion that the trouble was due to the church having changed over during Mr. Bowen’s ministry from Welsh into English, was denied by the deacons, who said that the matter of language was entirely a matter for the preacher engaged.