My Religious Upbringing

 

I'm not so sure about the intensity of my father Tom's religious leaning but my mother Katie was a God fearing woman. I really believe that Tom went along with all of mother's religious fervour just to keep the peace.  Dad was never one to rock the boat. The whole family, Dad, Mam, Minnie, John, Noel and I, all had  been baptized into the Scottish Presbyterian faith.  

 

To the best of my knowledge The Royal Burgh of Earlsferry has never had a church of any denomination. Earlsferry people either walked to Kinneuchar to go to the church  or walked  to the church at Elie.

 

As to the Reekie families religious instruction, Mam was the one that made sure we kept the faith by attending church every Sunday.  We all dressed up in our, go-to-meetin', Sunday best.  Bibles in hand, we walked the mile to the Church in Elie, rain or shine.

 

All of us children had a coin, usually a penny, to put into the collection purse and Dad put in a silver coin on behalf of himself and my mother.  The collection purse was a red velvet bag with two wooden handles.  At offering time the purse was passed from hand to hand on along the pew.  I must admit that there was the odd time that my penny stayed in my pocket as I went through the motions of making my contribution.  One time my mother noticed what I'd done and great was her rage and her wrath when we got home.  In no uncertain terms she made me to understand that what I'd done was the work of  the devil, Satan and  that I'd better mend my ways or for sure I'd spend my eternity, in a deep dark pit while I danced forever on a bed of red hot coals in the devils burning fire.  I believed her.

 

Once children were old enough to take care of themselves, we left our parents at the church gate and went about two hundred yards further along the street to go to the church hall to attend children's Sunday school.  We were later let out to retrace our steps to meet up with our parents at the church gate in time to go home with them.

 

One day the devil again raised his ugly head and whispered in my ear.  You've got a penny.  Get another boy with a penny.  You can skip Sunday school.  No one will be the wiser as long as you show up at the church gate in time to go home.  Down the road on the way to the harbour at the outside of the door of the Ship Inn Pub was a slot machine that dispensed Willy Woodbine cigarettes.  All that it took was two pennies in the slot to get a packet of five.  The devil won us over.  Down to the Ship Inn the two of us raced, shoved in our two pennies and got five Willies. From there we ran along the beach to the cave at the Lady's Tower.  Lo and behold boys were already there and smoking clay pipes.  ( Devil's den of iniquity! )   Clay pipes in these days were no more than a penny each. For tobacco, boys walked the length of the town to pick up thrown away cigarette butts that were laying in the gutters. Others were there smoking cinnamon sticks bought from Melville's  grocer shop.

 

I made up for my religious back sliding by each week-day in the summer attending the Sizum.  The CSSM. The Childrens Special Service Mission.  Each summer this group came to Earlsferry and rented the big house called St. Margarets, the garden of which opens on to the beach.  The purpose of this mission was the guidance of children by the teaching of biblical stories and the singing of children's songs of praise.  As far as I know the Sizum was non-denominational and everyone was invited to attend.  At the beginning of each day all the children participated in the building of an enormous mound of sand that became the pulpit and the place for the pedal organ.  At the back of the pulpit and supported by two poles buried in the sand, was a large red banner with the gold letters CSSM.  The children decorated the mound with all kinds of different seaweeds, shells and bits of flotsam from the beach. Shells were used to spell out the word of the day which might have been, God Is Love.  Others gathered wild flowers to make floral arrangements.  Each day the decorating was different and really was quite beautiful.  It was a place and time that all the children laughed and had a great time while we listened, sang and absorbed the message of the day.

 

The Sizum did a great job with me in that to this day every once in a while I'll find myself singing one of the Sizum songs.  My favourite was:

 

                                                        Joy, Joy, Joy.   With joy my heart is ringing.

                                                        Joy, Joy, Joy.   His love for me is told.

                                                        My sins are all forgiven

                                                        I'm on my way to Heaven.

                                                        My heart is bub-b-ling o-o-ver

                                                        With Joy, Joy, Joy.

 

I also remember one other thing that was said.  Live your life according to John 15 verse 12 which says, "This is my commandment that ye love one another."

That pretty well summed it up for me.

 

I can't say I was particularly influenced by  my Presbyterian upbringing but I did identify with the Sizum.