[2] Calvinistic Methodism became a major denomination in Wales, growing rapidly in the 19th century, and taking a leadership role in the Welsh Religious Revival of 1904-5.

Griffith Jones (1684–1761), Church of England rector of Llanddowror, Carmarthenshire, whose sympathy for the poor led him to set on foot a system of circulating charity schools for the education of children.

Griffith Jones's zeal, which contrasted strikingly with the general apathy of the clergy of the period, appealed to the public imagination, and his powerful preaching exercised a widespread influence.

[8][9] Griffith Jones, preaching at Llanddewi Brefi, Cardiganshire, found Daniel Rowland (1713–1790), curate of Llangeitho, in his audience, and his patronising attitude in listening drew from the preacher a personal supplication on his behalf in the middle of the discourse.

Harris' eldest brother sent him to Oxford in the autumn of 1735[13] where his friends hoped he "should be effectually cured of [his] 'enthusiasm', as they called it",[14] but he left in the following February.

He also set up societies, in accordance with the recommendations in Josiah Wedgwood's little book on the subject; and these exercised a great influence on the religious life of the people.

He was ordained deacon in the Church of England, 1740, but George Whitefield recommended him to leave his curacies in order to preach on highways and hedges.

[10] Rowlands and Harris had been at work fully eighteen months before they met in 1737 at a service in Devynock church in the upper part of Breconshire.

Seven lay exhorters were also at the meetings; they were questioned as to their spiritual experience and allotted their several spheres; other matters pertaining to the new conditions created by the revival were arranged.

[10] Monthly meetings covering smaller districts, were organised to consider local matters, the transactions of which were to be reported to the Quarterly Association, to be confirmed, modified, or rejected.

They did not accept the discipline of the Church of England, so the plea of conformity was a feeble defence; nor had they taken out licenses, so as to claim the protection of the Toleration Act.

Harris's ardent loyalty to the Church of England, after three refusals to ordain him, and his personal contempt for ill-treatment from persecutors, were the only things that prevented separation.

raged for some time, the principal disputants being Rowlands and Harris[clarification needed]; and in 1751 it ended in an open rupture, which threw the Connexion first into confusion and then into a state of coma.

Having been turned out of other churches, he had leased a plot of land in 1759, anticipating the final withdrawal of his license, in 1763, and a spacious building was erected to which the people crowded from all parts on Sacrament Sunday.

Having spent five years in Somerset as curate of several parishes, Charles returned to his native North Wales to marry Sarah Jones of Bala.

Heavy fines made it impossible for preachers in poor circumstances to continue without claiming the protection of the Toleration Act, and the meeting-houses had to be registered as dissenting chapels.

[10] Thomas Charles had tried to arrange for taking over Trevecca College when the trustees of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion removed their seminary to Cheshunt in 1791; but the Bala revival broke out just at the time, and, when things grew quieter, other matters pressed for attention.

Candidates for the Connexional ministry were compelled to shift for themselves until 1837, when Lewis Edwards (1809–1887) and David Charles (1812–1878) opened a school for young men at Bala.

The Association of the South accepted, and that of the North declined, the offer; Trevecca College was turned into a preparatory school on the lines of a similar institution set up at Bala in 1891.

[16] The constitution of the denomination (called in Welsh, Hen Gorff, i.e. the "Old Body" because, at its formation in 1811 issuing from the Anglican Church, it was an established 'body' or Connexion of believers with roots hailing back to the Methodist Revival), is a mixture of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism; each particular society constituted themselves to be churches and manage its own affairs and were to report (I) to the district meeting, (2) to the monthly meeting, the nature of each report determining its destination.

[citation needed] The Calvinistic Methodists formed in some respects the strongest church in Wales, and its Forward Movement, headed by Dr. John Pugh of Cardiff, brought thousands into its fold since its establishment in 1891.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition: The Calvinistic Methodists are intensely national in sentiment and aspirations, beyond all suspicion loyalists.

They thus form a living, democratic body, flexible and progressive in its movements, yet with a sufficient proportion of conservatism both in religion and theology to keep it sane and safe.

This position led to a protest from some of its members and the resignation of officials of the denomination, who saw, in this decision, the permission for the celebration of marriages between people of the same sex.