Sitting on top of a mountain in the heart of the Swansea valley, lies a beautiful white chapel which was built in 1692. "From the outside it looks like a lot of chapels, it's an old, pretty chapel which is 330 years old," said its minister Reverend Rory Castle Jones, 36. "But once you come inside there's a big Pride flag and I'm the minister. I'm a gay man who is married to my husband. There's no sense of people having to hide who they are and that's as it should be."
Rory and his husband Rhys Castle Jones were the first same-sex couple to get married in Gellionnen Chapel, a Neath Port Talbot Unitarian church, in August 2016. Rory's fiancé at the time wanted to get married in a chapel and the couple found it difficult to locate a church that would marry them. "We went there to get married and we fell in love with the church and the people," said Rory who added the chapel has now become a spiritual home.
Rory first moved to Swansea to study history and later worked at Swansea university in the admin department. Although he had been to Sunday school growing up, he was not particularly religious and had preconceived notions about religion and sexuality. "It would be normal to have those preconceptions because most churches still are homophobic. I was quite apprehensive about going into any church or chapel," said Rory. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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Although many churches might promote themselves as inclusive, Rory explained saying you are accepting of LGBTQ+ people and actually being a safe space for people to come to are very different things. "That first step into a church or chapel, you think 'Am I going to get funny looks or comments or am I going to be accepted?' So it's important to be honest as a church," he explained.
It was during the pandemic that he decided to change careers and train to be a minister. "It was a big change in direction of my life but now it seems quite natural," said Rory. He has now been the minister at Gellionnen Chapel for two years and described it as an inclusive church in "all ways" which does a lot of work in the community.
An example of this work is the monthly online LGBT+ Faith Gathering hosted by the church which is a confidential and safe space for people to be their true selves. The event is open to all faiths and backgrounds and people join from Swansea and all over the world. Rory also leads an annual LGBTQ+ Pride Service where everybody is welcome.
On why these groups and services are important, Rory said: "There's still a lot of challenges and discrimination for religious LGBTQ+ people so a lot of people think all religious groups are homophobic or transphobic. But things are changing and often people find it very surprising [that the chapel is inclusive]."
The minister said that there is sometimes a perception that everyone in the city is liberal and everyone in the countryside is not as open-minded but this could not be further from his experience at his chapel which sits above Pontardawe, Trebanos and Clydach in the Swansea valley. "We are a very rural, isolated chapel and it's very inclusive and open-minded," he explained.
Although Rory explained that in his denomination there have been openly gay ministers since the 1970s, in most other denominations there are no openly gay ministers. Despite feeling welcomed by his local community, he said he has faced homophobia from other churches as some people do not believe gay people should be allowed to be in his position.
But one of the best parts of Rory's job is conducting marriages for gay couples who come from all over South Wales to be married at the chapel. "It's such a joy because we know that they've had a bit of a battle to find somewhere so we roll out the red carpet to make sure they have a great time," he said.
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