EVANS, RICHARD HUMPHREYS (1904-1995), Calvinistic Methodist minister and professor of theology

Name: Richard Humphreys Evans
Date of birth: 1904
Date of death: 1995
Spouse: Anita Owen Evans (née Williams)
Gender: Male
Occupation: Calvinistic Methodist minister and professor of theology
Area of activity: Education; Religion
Author: John Tudno Williams

Born 8 April 1904 in Holyhead and educated at the town's County School. He graduated in UCNW Bangor in 1927 with honours in Latin, and after commencing the B.D. course in Bangor he moved to the United Theological College in Aberystwyth in 1929, completing the degree in 1931. He continued his theological education in Oxford after gaining a Pierce Special Scholarship and enrolled in Saint Catherine's Society. He graduated with honours in Theology in 1933. He followed a course of preparation for the ministry in Bala College 1933-4, and was ordained a CM minister to serve South Beach and Tarsis chapels, Pwllheli (1934-43), and then Bethesda, Gwylfa, and the English Church, Blaenau Ffestiniog (1943-53).

In 1953 he was appointed Principal of Bala Preparatory College, and when that work was relocated to the United Theological College at Aberystwyth in 1964 he moved to become Warden of the College and director of the pre-theological department; he became a recognized lecturer in the Holy Scriptures within the Faculty of Theology of the University of Wales. He retired in 1976 and moved to live in Denbigh.

He was very assiduous as an author of standard works and as secretary and chairman of his denomination's committees in the fields of education and literature in particular. For years he contributed a weekly column on the curriculum for adult Sunday schools for Y Cymro. He wrote two volumes which cast a great deal of light upon the history of the Calvinistic Methodist Connexion in the first half of the twentieth century: a biography of one who hailed from the same town as he, Holyhead, and who had also taught at the Theological Colleges at Aberystwyth and Bala, David Williams (1877-1927) (1970), and a volume on the history of the disputes between the two World Wars concerning the formulation of the Short Declaration of Faith and Practice of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, Datganiad Byr ar Ffydd a Buchedd Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru (1971), which had been the subject of his Davies Lecture in 1969. In addition he wrote a standard commentary on John's Gospel which was published as two volumes in 1956 and 1957. He also contributed a chapter on the theological debates, 'Y Dadleuon Diwinyddol (1763-1814)' to the second volume of Hanes Methodistiaeth Galfinaidd Cymru (1978) and edited a volume on Hanes Henaduriaeth Dyffryn Clwyd (1986).

He married Anita Owen, the daughter of John Williams, South Beach, Pwllheli. She died 7 July 1993, and he died in St.Asaph 21 April 1995 and was buried in the Denbigh town cemetery.

Author

Published date: 2008-07-30

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