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The Exhibition
The Bread of Heaven Exhibition will be a National Welsh Exhibition which will tour Wales over a 2 year period starting in Autumn 2007. It will be dramatic, modern, fun and stylish and will bring to life the Faith Heritage of Wales.

“In our lifetime, Wales has gone from being one of the most religious societies on earth, to being one of the least. In under a century, we seem to have turned our backs on over 1500 years of Christian Tradition.

But you cannot begin to understand Modern Wales, if you don’t understand the importance of Faith in our National Story..."

Huw Edwards
opening sequences of the BBC’s “Bread of Heaven” series October 2004

The Project will be:
- integrated into the Cwrricwlwm Cymreig;
- a catalyst for a programme of educational schools projects;
- a permanent resource for schools in Wales.

The Exhibition will make maximum use of Music, Drama and Multi-media to bring the Heritage to life and make it accessible to the young and old….

The Exhibition will be supported by 4 schools teams, who will visit schools in the region hosting the Exhibition, bringing the subject to life with multi-media, drama and music.
Currently, the intention is to take the Exhibition to 7 venues, one in each region of Wales, as follows:

North West – Bangor
North East – Wrexham
Mid West – Aberystwyth
Mid East – Newtown
South West – St Davids
South Central – Swansea
South East - Cardiff

Exhibition Content
The content of the Exhibition will map the structure of the recent BBC TV series , “Bread of Heaven”, which was presented by Huw Edwards and which won the Bafta Cymru this year in the best documentary category.

Section 1- Druids and Saints
The story begins with the paganism of the Druids which gave way to the pioneering Christianity of St David and the other Celtic saints

Section 2 – Catholic Wales
Medieval Wales was devoutly Catholic - a place for shrines, awe-inspiring wall paintings in churches and an intense veneration of the saints

Section 3 –The Dawn of Dissent
Wales was largely on the Royalist side in the Civil War, with a strong attachment to the old ways. It was to take a century for the Welsh people to come to love Protestantism.

Section 4 – A Non-conformist People
In the first half of the 19th century, a chapel was built in Wales every eight days! It was a time of serious Nonconformist radicalism and of vibrant cultural activity in the chapels.

Section 5 – The Welsh Revival of 1904
In 1904 Wales was on fire with religious fervour. Prayer meetings were held underground in pits and thousands flocked to hear the leader of the Revival, Evan Roberts. Within 18 months the Western Mail had calculated that more than 100,000 souls had been added to the church. But the strain proved too much for Evan Roberts and he sadly left Wales and the Revival to become a recluse.

Section 6 – Local Section
The 6th Section of the Exhibition, will be specific to the region which is hosting it, reflecting the local faith heritage, and being designed and delivered by local organisations and individuals. In this way we hope to engage people from each part of Wales visited by the Exhibition, enabling them to add their own history, experiences and heritage – thus giving strong local ownership of the project. The areas are:

North West – Bangor

North East – Wrexham

Mid West – Aberystwyth

Mid East – Newtown

South West – St Davids

South Central – Swansea

South East - Cardiff

Section 7 – Wales and the World

The final section of the Exhibition will show how our Faith Heritage has affected Modern Wales and the World.

It will make the connections between the Faith of our Fathers and the shape of Modern Wales, from the anthems we sing in the National Stadium, to the charitable work being carried out by people of Faith all over Wales today.

It will also look at the values and beliefs of people in Wales today mapping the development of a secular, multicultural and multi-faith society.