The Evangelical church in St Lunaire is celebrating this year the 100th anniversary of the building they worship in. It is an old Anglican chapel which they took over when the Evangelical church started. To celebrate the occasion, they are organising a series of conferences over the next few weeks. The first one was on Friday evening and the theme was: “Protestantism in the St Malo Area since the 16th Century”. The speaker is a lecturer in history in Brest university, a christian man. The theme of his PhD thesis was Protestantism in Brittany. This thesis has been summarised and published under the title: Protestants et Bretons.
The man was fascinating. He talked for about an hour and half, and yet it didn’t seem long. He confirmed two things for me: the Breton language was and obstacle to the progress of the gospel in Western Brittany, and the higher you were in society, the higher the chances were that you were a Protestant.
It was a long drive, and hour and half, but it was well worth the effort for me to get to know a bit more about Brittany. It was also a good excuse for me to get to meet a gentlemen called Jonathan Hanley who is an elder in the church in St Lunaire. His details had been given to us by several people in Cardiff, and we’d been in touch by email. He is English and studied in Cardiff for a few years, worshipping in Mackintosh Place. He also met his wife there, and he is one of Highfields Free Church misionaries.