Can anyone explain why my family became non-conformist about 1902 then returned to the C of E about 1908

Their first two children Frances George (1897) and James William (1899) were both baptised at Clearwell.

The five middle children were all baptised through the Forest of Dean Bible Christian circuit. Mabel Annie (1902), Leonard Victor (1902), Lily Gertrude (1903) Elton Peter (1905), and Wilfred Jesse (1907).

They returned to the Christian church for the baptism of Robert Arnold (Clearwell 1909)

Also can anyone pinpoint Clements End Chapel for me?

Incidentally I could not find Lily Gertrude in our transcripts

Any thoughts are appreciated

Kind Regards

Tony Jenkins

http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=thread&id=15129#15129

1901 Census
Monmouthshire West Dean
Marsh Lane

James JENKINS - 34 Coal Hewer, born West Dean
Mary Ann JENKINS - 32, born West Dean
Francis G JENKINS - 4 - born Mont LLanfanne (transcribed as)
William J JENKINS - 2 born Glos. Clearwell
Mabel A JENKINS - 6 months, born West Dean

FreeBDM : Lily Gertrude JENKINS - Dec Qtr 1903 - Monmouth District

Gloucestershire Records Office : mentions Clements End Chapel, Coleford

previous thread

Identifying churches/chapels from Parish Records

http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=10483&mode=thread

Clements End Chapel 1952 (Christmas Party/Fred Watkins - Sling Eng - Go to 'Home' - to search for FOD records/photos etc

www.sungreen.co.uk/Bream_1/Clements-End-Chapel-1952.htm

previous thread: (Fred WATKINS & Mine and Sling)
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=thread&id=1829

The reasons for changing churches are many and varied. The incumbent minister of the Church of England may have been too boring, controversial or challenging. Sometimes it would be to find a less liturgical form of worship or even doctrinal disagreement. On the other hand it may have been positive things about the non-conformist church - or even something as basic as distance. Return to the Church of England could be any of the reasons in reverse. Sometimes the arrival of a new group arouses interest and it may even be that friends attended either church.

I agree with Philip regarding all the possibilities he lists.

However, my experience in childhood in the Forest was that there was entrenchment within denominations, so that transfers or defections were rare and greatly to be disapproved. My grandparents at Lydney were staunch Methodists, but if you called them Wesleyan Methodists you were liable to fire and brimstone, since they were of the old pre-1933 Primitive Methodists. In Lydney, Springfield was the old "Prim" chapel whereas the Wesleyans were at Hill Street. The twain weren't often liable to meet. And if I had ever suggested to my grandparents that we should go to the Anglican parish church of St Mary, I would have been in deep trouble, since a church with bells and a clock was, to them, almost devilish.

The Bible Christians spoken of in this enquiry were founded around 1815 by a Wesleyan. Until a merger towards Methodist unity in 1907, they were an offshoot who began in Devon and Cornwall and went about with a brand of preaching that majored big time on wanting to eradicate of poverty and hypocrisy. This sometimes got them chucked out of their homes by the rich and hypocritical. The dates in question in this thread can fairly be described as coming in the wake of the 18th century Methodist revival when all manner of zeal and counter-zeal was afoot.

It's therefore reasonable to speculate that some Bible Christians in the Forest, converted by the powerful social message of their preachers, subsequently copped a measure of persecution that on reflection they felt they could reach heaven without, although I have no evidence of that having happened locally.

However, given that the Bible Christians merged with certain other Methodists in 1907, the return to the Church of England by 1909 mentioned in this thread just might have been caused by a feeling that if their favourite brand was being subsumed they might just as well go back to them there devilish clocks and bells!

Clements End Chapel is about halfway between Sling and Bream Postcode GL16 8LL, it is along a side road behind Chapel House, which in the 1960's belonged to H R Jenkins, Undertaker & Builder.