Inspection

Every year, around this time, there is an inspection of the church’s record keeping. Along with other churches we have to deliver the necessary paperwork to a location at a certain time in the morning then plan to collect it in the afternoon. It’s a bit like getting your school report card.

It was interesting to see individuals of a certain age walking towards the drop off point clutching folders under their arms. Although we didn’t know each other we all knew what each other was doing.

One of the documents required is the baptismal roll, here seen on top of the briefcase. The first baptism is recorded in it as 23 March 1890. 65 years later my name appears and a few years later that of my brother. And then in the early 1990s our own children feature as does one of my nephews.

On International Women's Day I note that even then only the father’s name is recorded. Happily that changed and from 1993 the mother’s name is included too.