Remember the Divinity Do, when ladies were encouraged to wear their wedding dress rather than fork out for a ball gown? I studied at New College from 1983-1987 (BD, Hons New Testament) and 1987-1989 (Dip Min). Having had to take early retirement from parish ministry on grounds of ill health, I moved from Aberdeenshire to Glasgow in 2013. For a couple of years, I helped out at Glasgow Cathedral on a part-time, voluntary basis and was appointed as a Chaplain; but gave up in October 2018, immediately before moving to the Rosneath peninsula. I was intrigued to see a Facebook post about the New College Ball, and wondered whether this has evolved from the Divinity Do which we started circa 1985. In those days, a large proportion of the student body was older and many people had young families so couldn’t afford the kind of ball that other faculties put on (our numbers were a lot smaller, too) so we came up with an alternative. To cut costs, we did most of the work /catering ourselves. As an incentive to cash-strapped young marrieds, ladies were encouraged to wear their wedding dress rather than fork out for a ball gown, and quite a few did... This article was published on 2024-03-19
