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Bishop

‘Bishop’ comes from the Greek word for ‘overseer’. So a bishop is a senior Christian minister authorised to have oversight for God’s people. As well as duties given to deacons and priests, bishops confirm and ordain.

Holy Communion

At Holy Communion blessed bread and wine is shared, by which we receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The congregation gives thanks for Jesus’ life, his death and resurrection and his continuing presence. See also Eucharist.

Home Newsfeed Bishop honours historic Welsh Bible forgotten in vestry cupboard.

Bishop honours historic Welsh Bible forgotten in vestry cupboard.

St Davids news Posted: 27 August 2025

The Bishop of St Davids will join celebrations to mark the chance discovery of a rare, 400-year-old Welsh Bible in the cupboard of a small country church.

The Rt Revd Dorrien Davies was the first to realise the significance of the 1620 Bible when he spotted it three years ago in St Martin & St Enfail’s Church in the old parish of Merthyr near Carmarthen.

The Bishop Parry Bible, one of the first in the Welsh language, was being used as a prop in a display at a flower festival. Former churchwarden Huw Evans found the Bible in a vestry cupboard lying forgotten and unrecognised among candles, linen and wine for communion. The warden had unknowingly stumbled on a book described by literary experts as a ‘precious treasure’.

Bishop Dorrien, then Archdeacon of Carmarthen, personally delivered the Bible for assessment and conservation in St Davids Cathedral Library. The Bishop will return to Merthyr on Sunday September 21st for a special service to celebrate the Bible, which played an important role in Welsh history in the reign of King James 1.

The Bible itself will also return to Merthyr to go on public display in St Martin and St Enfail’s on Saturday September 20th - Sunday September 21st from 12-4pm as part of CADW Open Doors, Wales’ contribution to the European Heritage Days initiative.

Former ITV journalist Ron Lewis will interview Cathedral Librarian Mari James about the Bible’s significance. The volume is a revised version of Bishop William Morgan’s iconic Welsh translation of 1588. Queen Elizabeth 1 had ordered Welsh Bibles to be distributed across Wales so the Scriptures could be available to all in their own language. This was the main Reformation project in Wales, intended to consolidate Protestantism.

The Bible was placed on the Shrine of St David during Bishop Dorrien’s enthronement last year. In June it featured in a nationwide conference of cathedral librarians and archivists alongside the first print of the William Morgan Bible on loan from Westminster Abbey.