BISHOP WYN - A PROFILE
As he began his episcopate, Bishop Wyn told Don MacGregor about some of his priorities.
What is it like being chosen as bishop? How did you feel at first?
It’s quite strange, really, because it’s never happened to me before! It happens to very few people. Although it was something that there was a possibility of in the electoral college, when it actually happens to you, it is quite stunning. For various reasons I’m glad that, in a sense, I’ve had quite a long ‘run in’ – because of the Bangor elections, there was a longer gap between the election and the consecration, but those eight weeks have gone very quickly, I can tell you! So I did feel stunned and quite humbled really. Its interesting when you realise that you’ll be the 128th bishop in sequence to David, who was in this place 1,500 years or so ago. I’m slowly coping with that idea!
The diocese has been launched on the Venturing in Mission direction. Do you see that continuing in the future?
Yes indeed. After all, we only formally adopted Venturing in Mission about three years ago, and I think there is a lot more to work through in order to bring about the vision, I’ve said before that I am extremely lucky to be following Carl because of the Venturing in Mission initiative, which means that I start from a much higher ‘base’ than otherwise. Of course the senior staff thought through the idea for a year or so before it went out into the diocese and I was fully involved in that from the beginning. When I did my part in it at the start, the whole idea I wanted to focus on was the local church. That catholic church with a local focus is what we are about because, when you think of this diocese, it is really a lot of very small churches whose life is perfectly valid. I remember the late bishop of Bangor saying, in this context, that a satsuma is not a failed orange; they have their own dynamic. That sense of locality is something we need to focus on, because all of us live as creatures of time and space, and we do get attached to places. Of course, having looked after the cathedral for the last fourteen years, it has a remarkable feel to it with the whole sense of place and of space and of what goes on inside it, but this is as true of a small country church or an urban church or a modern church or whatever, as it is of St Davids Cathedral. So that is quite a vital tool in the whole Venturing in Mission toolkit.
You have given some hints there as to your direction, but where would you like to start in your episcopal oversight?
The whole sense of place is interesting. In his visitation, the archdeacon of St Davids, said the responses he’d had from clergy indicated that they wanted to see me out in the diocese. That is what I want to do as well, to get out and around the whole diocese, systematically over the next year, deanery by deanery, as my predecessors have done, and that will give me a feel and help me to re-engage – because I was a country parson for five years on the borders of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire which was one of the best experiences in my life. I was brought up in Aberystwyth, and the whole urban-rural situation is changing and even affects small towns like Fishguard in this diocese. There are changes in the cultural dimensions and patterns which now prevail and I want to get out there and see what’s going on really.
You have been associated with St Davids for many years, and there have been rumours of you staying here – is there any truth in them?
I made the point, and it isn’t just me that is making this point , the last four bishops have made it as well, that it makes sense to have a base here. Certainly with the last three bishops we did explore practical possibilities of getting a base for the bishop here, and that’s really what I intend to do. Not just somewhere as a weekend retreat, but so that I can work from St Davids. One of the good things about Carl’s episcopate was that he was very ready to come to the cathedral for those important elements in its life where the bishop should be part of his collegiate community, and there are about 11 or 12 occasions like that in the year. I’ll obviously have to move to Carmarthen, because that’s where the diocesan office and bishop’s office are. At the moment I’m commuting the 100 mile round trip! As a bishop, connection with your cathedral is something which I think gives balance. The whole idea of bishops moving away from their cathedrals really only happened in the 19th century, when they wanted to become country gentlemen. In our case, of course, it’s different, it’s 400 years, but it was an accident – what Bishop Fowler wanted was to live in Lamphey, but he lost Lamphey and the only thing left to him, having demolished the palace at St Davids, was Abergwili. The bishops have only lived there 400 years.
You are known as an archaeologist as well as Cathedral Dean. Do you still do any academic work in that sphere?
Yes. Certainly in church history – I’m trying to finish an article at the moment. The deadline has receded by several months, I can tell you! The last thing we did here was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Jonathan Freeman’s monumental architectural and archaeological history of the cathedral and see where things have gone. Archaeology as such is about the building, but it also means getting back to the people who lived, used, built, and very often threw it away. It’s the people as well as the buildings and what fascinates me, especially when you are on a site that has been occupied continuously like this one for such a long time, is how your predecessors had to cope with the same problems and probably the same kind of people and the solutions that they came up with. Remember that history and archaeology are never really about the past, they are always about being where you are now, to prepare you for the future.
If, on the rare occasion, you get any time off, what do you like to do?
Walking, which I don’t do often enough, and just visiting museums, art galleries and bookshops. Especially bookshops – I’m a book addict as you can see. That’s going to be a major part of the shift!
What would you like to say to the people of St Davids Diocese?
In one sense, they know me, because I’ve served all my ministry here and my father was a parson in this diocese and I want to get to know them again. Its important that we walk together, we continue this path of discipleship, this venture in mission, because our function here isn’t really to do with maintaining buildings or whatever, but it is preparing God’s people for the kingdom.