There will be no Christmas Eve service this year, but you are most welcome to celebrate Jesus’ birth with us at our Sung Eucharist at 10.30 am on Christmas Day.
Advent 2: The last of the Old Testament prophets
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 8 December 2024. ‘John knew for a certainty that there was One other. He did not know who this was, but he would know Him when he saw Him.’
Advent 1: The Lord has placed us here because He believes in us
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 1 December 2024. ‘He has given us the message of His love for God and for one another, and for our neighbours. And now is the time to stand up, for our salvation is very close.’
Commentary: Trust in Him
The last several months have seen an increasing tempo in the challenges to our ways of life and thinking, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. The rulers of more and more countries around the world seem to prefer the allure of the dictatorships and are opposed to those where the rule of law prevails, and there is…
Bishop accused of bullying begins return to work
Scotland’s first female bishop – who has been accused of bullying – has begun a phased return to work. The Scottish Episcopal Church’s Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, the Right Reverend Anne Dyer, was suspended in 2022 and was due to face a disciplinary tribunal after three complaints were made against her. However, following a…
Christ the King: The King who is coming back
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 24 November 2024. ‘Now we wait for Him to return and claim what is His own and to remodel it in His own fashion.’
Trinity 25: Our great High Priest
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 17 November 2024. ‘And so we are also called into that great tradition of faith in Jesus Christ and trust in His atonement.’
Remembrance: Complete trust in and dependence on God
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 10 November 2024. ‘We are … remembering those whose devotion to duty cost them their lives – maybe not always willingly offered. But they still went forth anyway.’
All Saints: A life for the here and now
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 3 November 2024. ‘There are many burdens that we carry in this world. The fear of sin and death need not be among them’
Commentary: A majesty that draws us into itself
‘Our preparations for All Saints, Remembrance and Christ the King all have a relevance far beyond the here and now. All of them look beyond. But then as we know, All Saints is a thin place where the barriers between here and there are indeed known to shimmer.’
Trinity 22: Lord have mercy
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 27 October 2024. ‘Jesus would not be coming this way again, and this was Bartimaeus’ last chance…’
Trinity 21: Stay with God – or leave?
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 20 October 2024. ‘These are realities for every generation in every land. Their form and circumstances may change but the central issues do not.’
‘No prospect’ of my resigning, writes Bishop Dyer after pressure is applied
The Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, said on Friday that some of her episcopal colleagues had chosen to “threaten” her in an “unprofessional and un-Christian manner” by asking her to resign. “For the avoidance of doubt, there is no prospect that I will allow them to pressure me into quitting…
Four Scottish bishops urge Dyer to consider her position
Four of the six diocesan bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church, including the Primus, have urged the Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, to consider whether she is the right person to lead the diocese, in light of the response to her reinstatement. On Thursday afternoon, the Primus, the Most Revd…
Trinity 20: The High Priest already in the heavens and praying for us
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 13 October 2024. ‘In the Holy Spirit, He comes to us with His personal life and experience, His own wisdom and His ability to see and perceive. To discern and give counsel.’
Angry parishioners cut Scottish Episcopal Church from their wills after bullying claims against its first female bishop are dropped
Members of the Scottish Episcopal Church are threatening to leave while others have vowed to remove it from their wills after bullying complaints against its first female bishop were dropped. Some claimed the decision by its independent procurator that it was not in the public interest to pursue a tribunal has made a ‘mockery’ of the…
Disciplinary proceedings against Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney dropped
Disciplinary proceedings against the Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, have been dropped, even though the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Procurator said that there had been a “realistic prospect of conviction”. In a “note of reasons”, published on Tuesday evening, the Procurator, Paul Reid KC, wrote that proceeding with the prosecution was not…
Canon 54 process concludes after review by independent Procurator
During the Canon 54 process enacted following complaints made against the Rt Rev Anne Dyer, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, the independent Procurator to the Scottish Episcopal Church has kept under continuous review his decision of May this year to take charges to the Clergy Disciplinary Tribunal. Having maintained that review throughout discussions with involved…
Harvest: Honouring Him in our relationships and transactions
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 6 October 2024. ‘When our priorities start with the Kingdom then our other needs fall into place.’
Commentary: What kind of discipleship?
I have written before about Jesus’ total commitment to those who are His followers and disciples, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. This commitment is expressed in all four gospels, and in Matthew, Mark and Luke it is in the same account of how His natural family wanted to see Him and He pointed out that His…
Trinity 18: A good story
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 29 September 2024. ‘Perhaps our three lessons are linked by a commitment: the devotion and self-giving of Esther; the place of prayer shown by Esther and James; the importance of prayer and unity of faith as we continue to serve the Lord in our own time and place.’
Trinity 17: Jesus’ challenge
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 22 September 2024. ‘Leadership did not grow out of public relations and a good personal story. It did not come out of aggressive self-promotion and noisy assertions. It was to be seen in serving others and putting them before oneself.’
Mandate for episcopal election and summons for Electoral Synod issued
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev Mark Strange, yesterday issued a mandate for the election of the next Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway. The Rt Rev Andrew Swift, acting bishop during the vacancy following the retiral of Rt Rev Kevin Pearson, has also issued summons to the eligible members of the…
Trinity 16: Wisdom offers to instruct the simple
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 15 September 2024. ‘It is not a matter of great book-learning, debating skills or point-scoring. It is more a question of starting with God and letting Him be the rule and guide of life.’
Trinity 15: Who is in need and how do we recognize it?
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 8 September 2024. ‘All are called to being merciful in our daily encounters, and understanding that need has many faces and speaks with many accents’
Trinity 14: We may know peace and forgiveness …
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 1 September 2024. ‘What matters is that Jesus should increase in us and that our self-importance should decrease. That is how we will find ourselves – and that is also how the Lord wishes to be found in us.’
Commentary: Law and its effectiveness
The national trauma of the last few weeks during which riots overwhelmed several cities of England but spreading beyond, has left us bewildered, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. They tell of whole sectors of the community who are alienated and antagonized to the point of violence, in the pretext of immigration and multicultural issues but in…
Trinity 13: Equipped with God’s armour
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 25 August 2024. ‘The starting point is to stand firm on the ground already won by Jesus in His death and resurrection.’
Trinity 12: What something looks and feels like
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 18 August 2024. ‘May we … live by every word that comes from the mouth of God and not from our own emotions.’
Trinity 11: One area of faith that must be challenged
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 11 August 2024. ‘I do not believe that Jesus came in order to found a church or even the church. Emphatically not.’
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