S. J. Griffith

Born: Circa September 1850, Trefort, Glamorgan, Wales.

Brynhyfryd: Congregational>Pentecostal.

The Congregational churches of Wales were bitterly divided by the "Battle of the Two Constitutions", as it became known, whichlasted from 1877 to 1885. The dispute was between those who favoured the "old" constitution for the denomination's
Theological College in Bala, and those who wished to adopt a new one. R. Tudur Jones describes the dispute as one which rocked Congregationalism to it's foundations, with animosity, at times, on a personal level.
Tabernacle was deeply affected by the dispute, and in 1882 a large section of the membership left the church, and met on a temporary basis in the Town Hall. A new chapel was built, and was opened in March 1884 with some 200 members, the new church prospered, so that by 1897 the membership had grown to 450.
The new chapel was only a short distance down the hill from Tabernacle, to a design by Owen Morris Roberts.

S.J.Griffith (Morswyn), author of the hymn "Arglwydd Iesu, arwain f'enaid", was one of those who left Tabernacle, he became a deacon and precentor at this church, until his untimely death in 1893, at the age of forty-three.

--www.capeli.org.uk/