CAN you imagine the flurry of activity, perhaps even shouting, in this household before these little girls were ready to go to church?
It is Glasgow in 1960, and the sandstone buildings in the background would suggest a west end place of worship. The picture was used in the Evening Times in May of that year when the newspaper was running a series on why church attendances were falling and what could be done about it.
One suspects that the Evening Times didn’t really come up with the answers.
However the newspaper did speak to a church elder who thought that the church was failing to attract enough men to services, particularly working-class men. The newspaper quoted one worker who said: “The Kirk’s no for the likes of me. Ah don’t mind the kids going but no’ me.”
The smartly-dressed mothers and children in this generic picture used to illustrate the article seems to drive that point home. And as an aside, is that mother gently steering her loved one with that outstretched hand or simply giving her a dunt to hurry up?
The Evening Times articles concluded that the Church of Scotland had too much tradition, was too respectful, and should do more to engage with people in the community who didn’t attend rather than becoming a middle-class group who only spoke to themselves.