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Ceremonies in Britain and France on Friday marked the centenary of one of the defining events of the First World War.   The Battle of the Somme killed more than 19,000 Commonwealth and French soldiers on its first day.  When it ended 141 days later, more than a million on all sides had been wounded, captured or killed.

The focus of the remembrance has understandably been on those who fought.  For some people, however, such occasions can raise conflicting emotions, for in their families are people who chose not to fight. 

On All Things Considered this week, Roy Jenkins meets Gethin Russell-Jones, whose father was a conscientious objector during the Second World War.

John Russell-Jones was to become celebrated throughout South Wales in over half a century of preaching - but not for proclaiming a pacifist message.   His initial stand which took him before a government tribunal, and his subsequent silence on the issue has long intrigued and perplexed his youngest son, who has now explored his father’s decision in a new book whose title points to his dilemma: Conchie - What my father didn’t do in the war.

And we also find out about what has been described as ‘the biggest revolution in theological education in the UK for 50 years or more’.  The Church in Wales is in the process of reshaping the way in which it prepares men and women for its ministry.  Specialist training will now be done across Wales for both clergy and lay people under a new body, St.Padarn’s Institute, and the church’s only residential theological college, St.Michael’s, Llandaff, is closing. 

St. Padarn’s Institute is being launched this week, and we’re joined by its first principal, the Rev Dr. Jeremy Duff.