Father,

Romaticising history a little bit is one thing. Making up pure fiction to justify a modern tradition is another.

Take, for example, the idea of "clan membership." Just because your last name is so-and-so, does not necessarily mean your anscestors were members of "Clan X." But you take it with a grain of salt, adopt the clan as your own, and participate in the broader spectrum of Scottish-American culture with a sense of belonging. This, to me, falls into that category of harmless romanticising of history.

However, I really have no patience for those who perpetuate false myths about such things for which we have a well-documented history, such as the origins of the Kirkin of the Tartans ceremony. We know just where and when and why this service began, and it wasn't that long ago. But rather than acknowledge the real story behind it, people feel compelled to create a false "origin myth" to connect the rite to some Jacobite past.

I even know pastors in churches where this service is performed who know full well about Peter Marshall and the origins of the Kirkin, yet insist in printing in their programs the myth about the Jacobites sneaking scraps of tartans into the church in their bibles, etc., all because it's "a good story." But when your congregation all goes home believing that falsehood, and never knowing how the kirkin' actually originated, who is being served there?

By the way, I can echoe Father's statement that as a Roman Catholic (and one with a special interest in church history), I have never encountered anything in our tradition even remotely resembling a "kirkin of the tartans" ceremony. Nor would I expect to. (But it has always struck me that the blassing of inanimate objects seems a very "Catholic" thing for Presbyterians to be doing!)