Sunday School teaching and the production of a new syllabus, and advisers

convened training sessions. We were encouraged to be more adventurous

in expression, to teach by doing rather than saying —— with drama, models,

handcrafts, etc. It was not a great success though the new approach to acti-

vities was a good one. There was much criticism that there was too little

biblical content in the syllabus, that the stories and activities were too secular

and that Sunday School was no different from a lay playgroup. Our own

difficulty was practical for the structure was not easily applicable to an all-age

group such as ours. This syllabus was replaced by “Children of the Way”, a

series of booklets —— three a year —— for different aye-groups, and now by

the Church of Scotland/Collins series brought in last year, again in response

to a General Assembly initiative to try to encourage children and young people

in the Church, and make faith real in their experience. Sunday School

syllabuses are not well meaning ladies deciding to tell the dear children about

Moses in the bull-rushes this week: there is a responsible national programme

which we all try, however inadequately, to follow. The programme is accom-

panied by a series of worksheets to try and make the children think of

listening (or not listening?!)

‘During the Rev. Douglas Galbraith’s ministry we addressed two problems:

the Sunday School teacher’s, who was never able to attend a whole service, and

the suitability of entrusting too much of the teaching to very young girls. The

outcome was our present rota system which involves a good number of Sunday

School mothers two or three Sundays each term. We also began a practice of

making Communion Sunday a special day for the children, with a film or

games, crisps and orange squash, so that they would not think of it as the day

they were not wanted in Church. (I once took a group of the older ones up

into the gallery to observe at a Communion. They were astonishingly good,

although I was on tenterhooks!)

‘Thanks to the generosity of the Nursing Association, the Sunday School

enjoys several treats. Up until a few years ago we always had an outing with a

double-decker bus and streamers; the cost of bus hire and cross-fertilisation of

ideas within the linked charge has more recently given rise to our barbecue at

Kemback, but the traditional races are still popular. In spite of annual agoni-

sing over the competitive associations of “prizegiving” we still give books at

the last service before the long holiday in the summer; the children sing or

perform, sometimes giving flowers or handwork, and it is a generally festive

occasion. At Christmas we have a party, usually with an entertainment.

‘Another feature has become a Sunday School institution: the performance

of a nativity play by the children on the Sunday before Christmas, followed

by serving mince pies with coffee to the congregation in the Church Hall, and

sometimes (if time has allowed with all the preparations) also giving Christmas

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