It was no surprise to me that Edinburgh has a distinct lack of Southern Baptist churches. This wasn't too distressing; with ten years of Episcopal school under my belt and most of college spent going to mass with Mary, I wasn't afraid to branch out to new denominations. However...
The fine folks at Kirk o' Field (Church of Scotland), which was chosen first because it's visible from my window (hey, proximity counts for a lot when one's on foot), gave me a handy map to other churches in the area when I visited last week. It's a fine church but for one detail: I probably decreased the average age that morning by twenty years. The nearest church is undoubtedly the Apostolic Church across the street, but I have no idea what's going on with that one. After a bit of walking this week, I decided to try Buccleuch & Greyfriars, Free Church of Scotland.
What exactly is "free" about this denomination? I'm not sure, but there were no instruments and they sang from a psalter. Nothing against psalters, but I prefer mine with actual music written on the page - telling me the tune name doesn't help. Some guy a few pews up had the cribbed version, which contained a flip book of tunes and a second book of metrical psalms beneath it. Lucky...nevertheless, I muddled through, but I may look elsewhere next week. While I didn't know the hymns at Kirk o' Field, at least I could read the music.
There is one Baptist church in town, but it's way over on West Rose Street, past the castle, and that's a helluva walk in heels. Or in snow. Or in weather like today's, which is generally cold, wet, and raw.
It's times like this that make me miss Meadow Brook. ("Come on, y'all, who wants to steal donuts from the seniors? Baaa...")
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