For a period, the Welsh churches were associated with William Oliver Hutchinson and the Apostolic Faith Church denomination, in Bournemouth, England. However, on 8 January 1916, Daniel Powell Williams and most of the Welsh assemblies separated from Hutchinson and the Apostolic Faith Church over doctrinal matters, establishing the Apostolic Church in Wales (ACW). After 1916, the two groups had no further contact and developed along different doctrinal paths. Hutchinson had begun to claim all authority as 'Chief Apostle', a claim which Williams and the Welsh churches could not accept, seeing his claims to infallibility as contrary to both the Protestant principle of and collegial church government. The Apostolic Church was very careful to adopt a system of presbyteries to govern the church collegially. While ministers were ordained as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors/elders, and teachers, all were involved in prayer and deliberation together in presbyteries at the local, sectional, and national level. (The names of these governing bodies eventually became distinct, with the presbytery of the local church retaining the name 'presbytery', while the regional body became known as the classis, and later the Area Pastors' Meeting, and the national governing body adopted the name of General Council.) Church government was not reserved to the apostles alone, as they were regarded as first among equals () among the other ministers, requiring a collegial government.