29 September 2026

As a child growing up in Ardrishaig, we participated in the Harvest Thanksgiving. The local grocer prepared little trays of fruit – apples, oranges, grapes and pears. They were covered in cellophane and we presented them in the kirk.

As a child, this was an awesome event. In our church, it was the only procession in which children participated. We walked down the aisle in a long line and handed our gifts to the minister.

Throughout forty years of ministry, the children in my kirks did the same. The gifts and the recipients changed from local people to institutions and then charities with fruit being replaced with toiletries and woollen hats and gloves.

But the Harvest Thanksgiving Procession remained. There was another at the Christmas Gift Service and a third during our celebrations of Palm Sunday. The only other procession was the Great Entry when the elders brought in the bread and the wine.

As a minister receiving the children’s gifts was just as awesome as being a child and offering them. It was moving to see the children processing down the aisle and tragic to realise that our aisles have become a desert land. The children and their gifts have gone!

The Kirk has failed to pass on the faith to a younger generation. This decline began in the nineteenth century with the gradual demise of the Sunday School!  At its height, over half the children in the nation attended Sunday School. Now they have almost vanished from the landscape.