Mrs. Veronica Smart, who was for many years the Sunday School Super-

intendent of the parish Church, has written her recollections of the Sunday

School:

‘My first acquaintance with the Sunday School goes back to the early

1960s when it had just moved into the recently built Church Hall. Before

that, in Mr. John Hall’s time, it met in the Manse, but earlier than that it met

in the Church itself before morning Service. There have been many shifts

and changes to try to solve the problem of the different age groups in the

one hall —— now partly solved, unhappily, by a decrease in numbers.

‘The “new houses” —— Drumcarrow and Mount Melville had brought a

large number of young families to Strathkinness. At that time there was a

creche in the Manse dining-room, supervised by a rota of young mums. The

3—8 year olds met in the Hall from 11 a.m. — 12 and the 8—12 year olds led

by the late Mr. William Cockburn met from 10—11 a.m. Therewereat least

six classes of “little ones”, in little half-moon clusters of chairs down the sides

of the hall, taken individually by teenage girls of the congregation; about 35

children, and perhaps a dozen or twenty more in the 8—12 class, meeting

separately. Lillian Cooney who lived at 2 Mount Melville Crescent used to

collect up a whole crocodile of younger children and bring them together.

‘At that time we taught from “The Scottish Sunday School Quarterly”

which came in a small magazine format with the stories to be told, and the

children got a take-home magazine “Morning Rays” once a month.

“Expression” was usually drawing or making friezes and I inherited a

“Flannelgraph” from my predecessor, Mrs. Davidson, whereby a story could be

illustrated by sticking up Bible figures on a cloth covered board to which they

clung by means of lint glued to their back.

‘I cannot quite remember the point at which we began to take the children

as a Sunday School into church for the early part of the service, but I think

it was at the Rev. George Hall’s request (when he was taking pulpit supply

in the Bennett/Galbraith interregnum, 1976-1977) that we began to occupy

the front pews. I remember commenting when I was editing the Newsletter

(1976-77) on the Assembly’s enthusiasm for integrating children in congre-

gational worship with a note on what we were doing. I think that earlier more

parents came to church and that the children sat with them, any odd ones

sitting with Sunday School teachers, but that back in the 1960s the whole

Sunday School time was spent in the Church Hall.

‘The “Sunday School Quarterly” gave up publication about the early

1970s and there was a great ferment about the New Programme —— the Baird

Fellowship had been founded in the Church of Scotland for the study of

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