My church

I RECENTLY received a long service certificate, signed by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in recognition of over fifty years of loyal service. It was a great honour.

I was raised in Paisley, into a deeply religious Christian Brethren family – that gave me a faith that has never left me throughout my life. I attended morning service, Crusader class in the afternoon and Gospel Meeting in the evening every Sunday.

After graduating in medicine from Glasgow University in 1961, and getting married to Doline in 1965, I moved to Dunoon with a growing young family. We both became very involved in St Margaret’s Parish Church in Kirn, Dunoon. In line with my beliefs, none of the three children was christened at birth. My eldest daughter, Fiona, is now an elder herself in Aberdeen.

In 1968, I was invited to join the Congregational Board of St Margaret’s by the Rev J Lindsay Guthrie. I was assigned an Elder’s district around Hunter Street in Kirn, where I served for more than 50 years.

Christian education of children is of great importance to me, and I quickly became involved with the Sunday School, as teacher and as the pianist. Music was, and remains, an important part of my faith. I am able to draw on my early Christian upbringing to introduce the children at the Sunday School to a huge selection of choruses and hymns.

“ Christian education of children is of great importance to me, and I quickly became involved with the Sunday School, as teacher and as the pianist.”

The Rev Tom Girdwood, the minister of the newly named Kirn Parish Church, then asked me to become Sunday School Superintendent. I was happy to do so, and with the able help of the late Moira Taylor, around one hundred children attended every week. I was able to lead the Sunday School for over a decade as well as carrying on my work as a doctor.

I often say how remarkable and fortunate it was that medical emergencies were not as frequent as would be expected on Sunday mornings in Kirn!

Over the years I have seen many changes in the Church. My initial parish, St Margaret’s formed a union with St Andrews to become Kirn Parish Church.

Later we joined with Sandbank Church to become Kirn and Sandbank, before further unions resulted in Cowal Kirk. Women have become ministers and elders during this time and we have introduced Unitary Constitutions. Sadly, I have witnessed a steady decline in congregation size.

Especially troubling is the reduction in the number of families and children attending. Inevitably, this has led to changes, but the effect has been to take away the old and comforting certainties of attending the same church at the same time every Sunday with the same minister. ¤