There is so much that is good about this book, offered to us at time when public worship in buildings has ceased, but a plethora of worship that is visible is taking place in Wales, as well as around the world, in homes as well as on-line or with a mixture of both. The author (Ian Rees) is to be commended for bringing out this book so quickly, although I might imagine much of it had been wrestled with by the author both alone and with others over many years. Indeed, he admits as much himself, when he notes that some of the thoughts in this book were obvious before the advent of the coronavirus (14).

 It is a timely challenge for us to reassess the number of buildings that we have as a Church in Wales throughout our nation, as well as a lament over the general poverty of our prayer and inability to root ourselves in the dynamic of the biblical story. These are things I will return too later.

However, I would suggest that the book did not need the coronavirus to be written nor are its conclusions specific to the Welsh Anglican Church. This may of course because Wales is experienced differently from place to place, I am surprised that the author does not really address the issue of language and culture. On Anglesey, with many first-language Welsh speakers, you cannot talk about effective ministry without engaging with y iaith Cymraeg.

The Church in Wales, as lockdown restrictions ease, is not closing, but perhaps it is not yet as confident as it might be. It has too many buildings, or perhaps it has too many buildings in the wrong place, at least for the old way of doing church within a static community. Buildings can now be surrounded by fields and livestock rather than by people. Rees is correct, I think, to argue that the closure of buildings should be taken away from the local worshipping community, but on reflection, I want to say that such communities should be part of the process. In many places, church buildings are part of the landscape pointing in one sense eloquently to years gone by when the Christian story shaped the contours of Wales. they are loved as places of pilgrimage, where people come to remember their loved ones, but their reason for being is forgotten, thus Rees is ‘spot-on’ to suggest that Anglican Christians in Wales no longer are familiar with the overarching story of the Bible. This is a failure of those of us who serve in ministry, as well as those who have ministered before us. How many clergy confidently share the gospel.

Ian Rees’ book though is a hopeful one. He holds out the possibility that the Welsh Anglican Church has a future. It does if it embraces change and is willing to re-embrace the mission that God has given to it, which is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus afresh in every generation.

Church confident and closing deserves careful reading, and I will be re-read, dialogue, challenge and be challenged by its contents in the months that lie ahead.