Kirkin' of the Tartan

[Tartan Hiker]

Can someone point me toward a document with a good description of the genesis of the Marshall service? Each year I attend several different Kirkin' services at PCUSA churches that include the erroneous "history" in their bulletins. I'd love to be able to present a document to these folks that they could use to get the story straight next time.

I work in Montreat NC (the Mecca of Presbyterianism in the eastern US) every summer, and was asked to deliver a lecture this past June on tartans and kilt styles. They seemed to take the news that most clan tartans are recent inventions very well, and didn't even revolt when I insisted that the antiquity of the kirkin' service (which is a huge deal in the Montreat church) was probably also fiction. With proper documentation I may be able to get them to update their bulletin insert...

...or I may be tarred and feathered and run out of the valley on a rail.

edit...should have looked at the STM site first. Good article there that I don't remember reading before. Matt, who is Todd Wilkinson and did that article appear in "print" somewhere? I need really good ammunition, and we all know that some folks don't trust web-based authority.

edit again...what do the scholars think of Montreat's own version of this? They include this caveat " While there are many versions on the internet, we believe this brief outline to be accurate."

http://www.montreatscottish.org/even...kinhistory.htm

Thanks!