"Historians of the church recognise that before the Great Schism of the Roman Catholics in 1054 AD that there was only one church in the known world. The Orthodox Church was the only church and was the one in Wales.

As he dates from that time we know for a fact that St David was Orthodox. The earliest paintings and carvings of him show him wearing Orthodox priest robes.

Other Welsh saints such as St Winifrede of Holywell, St Sulien and around 800 others during The Age Of The Saints (425 to 505 AD) were all Orthodox Christians.

Wales then followed the rest of Britain with 500 years of Catholicism, then the proliferation of Protestantism and its various branches.

A thousand years after the Great Schism there are very few Orthodox churches in Wales. The Greek community in Cardiff is the best established and now around 100 years old.

Father Deiniol in Blaenau Ffestiniog has been catering for Orthodox needs in the north and Father Luke has been serving the Swansea community for around 10 years. For a millennium mid Wales has had no facilities for the local Orthodox to worship.

Now, however, an Orthodox church has opened in Lampeter. In 2006 a world renowned writer of Orthodox academic books was invited to lecturer and set up a new Orthodox Studies department at Lampeter University.

He managed to procure the services of Orthodox priests from Shrewsbury and Llanelli to visit once a month to serve the Divine Liturgy in the university chapel.

A local Orthodox family immediately attended and so a core of people was formed. With the support of the local Church In Wales clergy the Orthodox church was welcomed and started to attract members.

Two years later and the more advanced version of the church is now renting its own premises in the side hall of Soar Chapel. An evening service is still held in the university chapel once a week for the Orthodox students, who may otherwise feel awkward about visiting a church in town.

Most importantly we no longer need visiting priests as we have been allocated one of our own to cover this area. Fr Timothy, of Tregaron, is a born and bred South Walian who converted to Orthodoxy some 30 years ago.

After many years serving at Shrewsbury Orthodox he was priested and given to this community in 2007.

Orthodox people from all over mid Wales are travelling to participate in some good old fashioned Christianity.

A small of knot of Russians near Tregaron attend and have had their children baptised. Now there are Greek, Cypriot, Russian, Coptic, Welsh and English in the congregation. All are bound together by their Orthodox faith, whether they were born to it or later converted.

The church is under the auspices of the "Ecumenical Patriarchate Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain", whose head is the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Although the Orthodox church does not actively seek converts, visitors are always welcome at our services. Please see our website for times and directions."

Article written by Harry Harrison.