"A Big Part In My Life"
(from www.lifeandwork.org)
Teenager Abbie Hair from Port Glasgow explains why she wants to become a member of the Church of Scotland.
MY name is Abbie Hair, and I am 17 years old.
I attend Port Glasgow New Parish Church in Inverclyde and I have been a part of the church my whole life. I was christened in the church when I was three years old along with my brother who was only a few months old at the time. At this time, my church was called St Andrew’s Church. Last year St Andrew’s Church merged with St Martin’s Church and formed Port Glasgow New Parish Church.
My church has played a big part in my life and through my many years of attending I have met so many amazing and kind people as well as having so many opportunities within it.
I also attend 1st Port Glasgow Girls’ Brigade which is linked to the church and have gone through Explorers, Juniors and Brigaders and I am now moving on to train to be an officer in the company. I am also going to become a member of our church when things go back to somewhat ‘normal’ and I am really looking forward to it, as becoming a member means I can have more involvement in our church and different things that happen within it.
Growing up a Christian, I was always proud to say I attend church every Sunday and attend Girls’ Brigade on a Thursday night. In primary school, there were only two out of 30 of us in the class that attended church, and our classmates would always be interested in what we had done in church and what we spoke about.
As one of the only church attenders, I was interested in what other people’s views and beliefs were and was always keen to listen to what everyone else was saying.
I quickly realised that not everyone had the same beliefs and that no-one’s beliefs were wrong. Everyone was accepting of each other’s beliefs which made it easier for everyone to talk about them as a group.
The last year has been very strange to us all to say the least and to me, it has been even stranger not attending church, but watching the services online.
Our minister, the Rev William Boyle, started live streaming our church services on Facebook and YouTube last year at the start of the pandemic. Along with my mum, I have watched all services on Facebook, and they have been very enjoyable.
It has been very strange not being in the church for services and instead, watching them from home but as they are all online, it also means that a larger group of people can tune into the services and can also watch them later on in the day if they want to re-watch or were unable to watch the service live in the morning.
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