Kirkin' O' the Tartan

      Yesterday was the 19th annual Kirkin' at Grace Presbyterian Church in Panama City, Florida.  It followed the all day Saturday Scottish Festival on the church grounds which drew a crowd of several thousand.  Clans come and display their wares.  Drum and pipe bands play.  Scottish dancers dance.  There are bouncey houses for the little kids.  And everyone can take a break and come into the Scottish tearoom for refreshments.  Cucumber sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches.  Empire biscuits. Shortbread (my favorite). Scones, plain and cranberry, with clotted cream.  And pot after pot of tea.  We cook for a week, getting ready.  Ask me how many cups and saucers we washed!?  But we have advanced with modern technology: we now have one of those amazing dishwashers that automatically draws soap and completes the cycle in TWO MINUTES - you can tell what impresses me!
     Around 1746 after the Scots were defeated by the English at the Battle of Culloden, they were no longer allowed to wear their kilts or tartans.  So they would secretly carry a little piece of their tartan when they went to Kirk (church) and the minister would slip in a Kirkin' (blessing).  The prohibition lasted for about 50 years.  When repealed, the Church of Scotland celebrated with a service of Family Covenant at which time each family offered their tartan as a covenant expression for the Lord's blessing.
     In 1943, Dr. Peter Marshall, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in  Washington, D.C. (and later Chaplain of the U.S. Senate) held what became the first Kirkin' O' the Tartans.  It was the actual title of his first sermon in support of the British war relief and the Scottish Clans evacuation plan.  The sermons were so popular that it was requested they be published.  Proceeds went to war relief programs.