Minister found hanged in church

Rev Tom Griffiths had been a minister at the church for 14 years

A minister has been found hanged in his chapel near Swansea.

The body of Reverend Tom Griffiths was found by a parishioner in an upstairs room at the Mumbles Baptist Church in Newton Road on Thursday afternoon.

Rev Griffiths, 52, who was married with a grown-up son, had returned to the city two days earlier after a three-month exchange visit to New Zealand.

One of his closest friends in the church said the minister had sounded "sombre and quiet" when they had spoken on the telephone the night before his death.

Business consultant David Morgan, 53, an elder or deacon at the church, has known Merthyr-born Rev Griffiths for 30 years and had put his friend's response during their conversation on Wednesday evening down to jet lag.

He said: "He would not have done it if he was in his right mind.

"The only sign of him being unwell in the last weeks was that he had not been eating or sleeping too well.

With every person I have spoken to, I have had to say his name two or three times because they just didn't believe it Church deacon and friend David Morgan

"His wife would have seen that. She put it down to homesickness."

Mr Morgan said Rev Griffiths was well-known in the area not just in the church.

He said: "We just can't comprehend it.

"With every person I have spoken to, I have had to say his name two or three times because they just didn't believe it.

"Tom was the sort of person who you would expect everyone to say was a great guy.

'Compassionate individual'

"Many people from all walks of life will say the same thing. He was a very keen biker and well known about all the motorbike shops. He was well-known with young people.

"He not only preached the Christian message, he practised it.

"Regularly, vagrants would call at his house and have some soup. When some were really desperate, he would take them and put them in to a bed-and-breakfast at his own expense."

Reverend Geoffrey Faukes of Pantygwydr Baptist Church, in Swansea, said: "Pastorally Tom was superb and his people loved him. He was a very compassionate individual who identified with people's predicament. At the same time he was a very private individual.

"Obviously the mind is a very delicate instrument and fractures very easily.

"The south Wales Baptists will give all their support to the church and individually we will pray for his wife Susan and his son Richard.

"We are a people of faith and our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will see us through."

It is thought chapel elders were waiting in the building for a routine meeting with the minister when Mr Griffiths' body was discovered around 2pm by a woman parishioner.

A post mortem examination is due to be held on Friday.

His widow, Sue, and son, Richard, are being comforted by family and friends.