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There was not a single woman training alongside Barry Morgan when he studied for the priesthood in the early 1970s, but he steps down this month as the longest-serving Archbishop in the history of the Church in Wales having just consecrated its first female bishop.

Dr Morgan was at the forefront of the campaign to admit women to the episcopate and a first attempt to change the rules of the church narrowly failed in 2008.

In 2013 the governing body agreed to change canon law and the ecclesiastical glass ceiling shattered with the consecration of Joanna Penberthy as Bishop of St Davids.

(Image: PA)

Both Wales and his church have been through seasons of profound change since he succeeded Rowan Williams in the post in 2003. He now wonders why the absence of women during his student days didn’t seem abnormal.

He said: “I now look back and think it’s astonishing that when I was a student at theological college I didn’t think it odd that I was in an all-male institution, that there were no women students there... I just think, gosh, how come I was so blinkered in a way, or just didn’t think that this wasn’t quite right?”

Throughout his tenure as Archbishop he has not kept silent when things haven’t seemed “quite right”.

The Church in Wales may have been disestablished in 1920 but he is one of the highest-profile figures in Welsh public life and he fought a passionate campaign to turbo-charge the powers of the Assembly.

Devolution, he argues, is a “much better system” than Wales being “ruled by a Secretary of State and two under-secretaries” and he championed the 2004 recommendations of the Richard Commission for an 80-member Assembly with primary law-making powers.

The Assembly will shortly gain a raft of new powers, but there are still just 60 AMs. Making the case for an increase, he said: “[If] we don’t have people who can scrutinise legislation properly we’re likely to have legislation that is badly drafted or badly conceived and therefore, for the good government of Wales, I think that is necessary.”

He is happy to be at the centre of a passionate debate, whether in the church or wider society. An archbishop has precious few executive powers and the ability to persuade is a key skill.

“No archbishop, since we’re dealing with volunteers, has any power other than persuasion and influence and I wouldn’t want it to be otherwise either,” he said.

(Image: Huw John)

He bats away any comparisons between his efforts to change the Church in Wales and Pope Francis’ efforts to transform Catholicism.

“Oh, goodness me,” he said. “The Archbishop of Wales is very small fry in comparison to the Pope.

“He’s the leader of millions and millions of people throughout the world and people hang on his every word.”

But he added: “It’s interesting to see, though, that he’s emphasising a church that’s full of grace and mercy. I hope that the Church in Wales is a more merciful and gracious and inclusive church than it has been in the past.

“Because when I think of, for example, people who are married a second time after divorce, there was a time even during my ministry when it wasn’t possible either to bless them and certainly not to marry them... now, of course, it’s possible to recognise that relationships do break down and second marriages are possible in church so that failure in that area is no different from failures in other aspects of ones lives.”

On his watch, Welsh Anglican clergy have been given the go-ahead “to say prayers publicly in church with people who are in civil partnerships or same sex marriages”.

He admits that when he steps down on January 31 on his 70th birthday, he will leave behind “unfinished business”, but this doesn’t trouble him too much. “There’s always more things you could have done,” he said. “There’s always more parishes you could have encouraged and visited.

“There’s always more clergy you feel that you could have supported more but there are only 24 hours in a day and you do what you can as you can and when you can.

“You just realise that everything is unfinished and unfulfilled because that’s the nature of ministry because there’s never a point where you can say, ‘Well, I’ve done it all’ because nobody’s ever done it all because nobody has ever lived a Christian life to the full or ever will.

“So, you’ve just got to live with unfinished business and loose ends.”

It is unlikely he will vanish from the public stage, but he sounds astonished by the suggestion he could have the option of joining the host of Welsh members of the House of Lords.

“Oh, gosh,” he said. “I haven’t thought about that.

“I’m just looking forward to having a rest and not doing very much for the next few months.”

There was immense sadness when his wife, Hilary, passed away from cancer after 46 years of marriage last year. In the years since his ordination in 1973 he has helped many families deal with grief but he has spoken candidly of the pain her passing brought.

Just before Christmas, he commented that you can “know all the theories about bereavement” but you don’t “really know” until you have experienced this for yourself.

As someone who has tried to share a knowledge of god in an increasingly secular society, he urges people to avoid the stereotype of a deity who “zaps people” and instead focus on the figure of Jesus Christ.

Inspired by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, he said: “I come back to a phrase of Michael Ramsey’s where he said that god was Christ-like and in him is no un-Christ-likeness at all. In other words, if you want to think about god then the only true image that we have is to be seen in the person of Jesus.

“Some people see god as an angry god, a vengeful god, almost a kind of spiteful god, a god who zaps people. Now, that’s as far away from the god of Jesus as it’s possible to get.

“So for Christians our image of god is shaped by the ministry and the life of Jesus.”

(Image: Western Mail Archive)

Dr Morgan steps down as the Trump era begins and Britain races towards Theresa May’s end of March deadline for the triggering of the Brexit process.

Looking across the Atlantic at the new resident in the White House, he said he hopes “the kind of society he seems to be advocating doesn’t come into being”. Trump, he remarked, has “pretty awful things to say about Mexicans, about women, about Muslims, that would be shocking if it came from anybody”.

He added: “I don’t think we’ve ever seen a president like that.”

It’s his desire that Wales will be able to hold onto core Christian values as new waves of change hit.

He said: “I certainly hope that Britain can hang onto those as well and that, once the dust has settled, we will become a welcoming, hospitable nation once more. I think there’s a danger of immigrants being scapegoated and being seen as the source of all our problems.

“Well, that’s certainly not the case... they’ve contributed hugely to the economy and they give more in taxes than they take in benefits.”

Dr Morgan will find no shortage of opportunities to take part in great debates when he leaves office. He has never come across as someone who is reluctant to share his true thoughts, but soon he will be able to speak with an even greater freedom.

He may be leaving one stage but a new act is about to begin.