Church of Scotland

This past Sunday I had my first experience with the Church of Scotland. We went to a morning service at Greyfriars Kirk, and I thought it was very nice. It was a pretty standard protestant service, so nothing too new or different there. The sermon was a bit strange, however. I think part of it may have been that the minister who gave it (I think she was an assistant minister or minister in training or something) did not have English as her first language. Some parts of it were kind of hard to follow just because of the difficulty in writing in a language that's not your own. I think the other reason it felt a little strange was just due to the fact that the style was different than what I'm used to. Another difference was the way they took communion. They brought out four goblets and a couple loaves of bread, so I assumed they were going to take it by intinction. nope. They had one side of the church come up and gather in a circle, then the minister served one person and the elements (first bread and then wine) were passed around the circle, with each person serving to the person on his or her left. The bread was all fine and dandy - standard serving style. The wine, however, was passed around and each person drank from the same goblet, wiping the rim with a handkerchief afterward. Nothing wrong with that really, except I was sort of taken out of the experience by hoping that the man next to me didn't have a cold.
Anyway...the church itself was lovely, and the people very nice as well. The head minister's wife came up and introduced herself afterward and chatted with us for a bit. I think I'll definitely come back a time or two. Maybe if I work up enough courage, I'll stay for the Gaelic service at 12:30

The pictures are various views from the kirkyard.

Oh! And of course, I took a picture of the statue of Greyfriars Bobby on the street out front. If you don't know the story of Greyfriars Bobby, check out the link.