The Kirk's Sunday School
The beginning of the Kirk's Sunday School:
The Scots Kirk, Duke Street.
Daily Gleaner, April 25, 1874
The report of the committee, appointed by the assembly in the year 1825, to inquire into the management of the Kirk, is so creditable to the sister establishment of our church here, that I shall be pardoned for inserting it.
"A part of the committee visited the establishment, and, after hearing Divine service, were witnesses of the examination of the scholars of the Sunday-school, and were highly gratified at the discipline and regularity with which it was conducted, and the great progress that had been made in the education of all classes of the scholars, very honourable to the exertions of the reverend Mr. Wordie :
"The school was first established during the past year, and in the short period which has since elapsed, the number of children has gradually increased from seventy-two to three hundred and twenty, an increase which must afford satisfaction, as it at once furnishes a proof of the estimation in which the school is held, and of the desire for religious instruction which prevails among the poorer classes of people in the city of Kingston. It is also satisfactory to consider the gratifying conviction it affords of the dihgence, steadiness, and zeal of the different teachers initiated by Mr. Wordie :
" The only funds for the support of the establishment are the annual sum of £321 currency, being the interest of a sum of money lodged in the public chest of this island, and a small rent upon the pews: It possesses no means for the occasional repair of the buildings :
"Upon the whole, the committee are of opinion that, without public support, this valuable institution will be lost ; that it ought to be encouraged and upheld, and recommend that a bill should be brought in to grant to its officiating minister for the time being a permanent salary or stipend.''
pages 490-1
The Annals of Jamaica, Rev George Wilson Bridges, 1828
