’We feel sad that going to Church is not common any more’

HI, we are Isabel (aged 10) and Holly (12) and we have been going to St Ninian’s Church in Dunfermline all of our lives. We like the church because it is friendly and welcoming, and we learn about the Bible and about God and Jesus. The Sunday School is fun and the leaders are really nice and we have friends there.

We are normally the youngest people in church apart from sometimes one or two toddlers. This makes us feel special but it would be nice if there were more people our age. Everyone treats us kindly and we don’t feel talked down to because we are young. Some of our favourite memories of church are: doing the Nativity play, especially when Isabel got to play Mary; doing the Christingles and singing carols at Christmas; having a soup lunch after the harvest service; taking part in a sleepover with all the church youth organisations; Sunday School outings, picnics and going to the panto in January; and doing the arts and crafts at Messy Church.

Since our minister arrived the year before last, we have been included in services by carrying the youth bible in at the start, and during the family service each month we read some of the prayers and readings and have taken part in church drama sketches.

This makes us feel included, respected and cared for as full members of the church. We also love that we are allowed to take part in communion. The first time we had a special young people’s communion, about seven years ago, I (Isabel) insisted that we sing Alice the Camel before we started! The only thing we would change about the church is that there would be more people, especially more people our age. We do try to invite some of our friends to church and a couple of them have come along, but none have started coming every week yet.

At school we think we are the only people in our classes who go to church, although there are also a couple of Muslim families. People know we are Christians and most of them are nice about it, although there is a lot of friendly teasing, but sometimes people are mean. One person asked Isabel to bless her water bottle! People sometimes ask questions about why we are Christians, and depending on who they are we are happy to talk to them about it. The things we learn at church help us to explain about Christianity to other children.

People from a diff erent Church of Scotland have started a Scripture Union at our primary school (Holly moved to high school this year) which we like because it gives us a chance to be more open about being Christians at school and to learn even more about God, and because it’s a chance for kids who don’t go to church to learn about Him. We feel sad that going to church is not common any more, especially among young people, but we feel that if more children could be persuaded to come they would enjoy it, because our church is awesome!

If you are under 30 and involved in the Church of Scotland and would be interested in writing for this column, please email us on magazine@lifeandwork.org