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.’
Trinity 10: The ‘I AM’ of Jesus
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 4 August 2024. ‘This is life far beyond existing, breathing, eating and procreating. This is life lived and known in the light of God. It is life that celebrates and rejoices in the things of God and where God is the foundation of all else that is.’
Trinity 9: God waits to be gracious to us
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 27 July 2024. ‘We do not have to be defined or limited by our sins, failures or disappointments. Not when the glory of the fulness of Jesus Christ is just waiting to be poured over and into us.’
Scotland’s Christians feel excluded, survey finds
A recent poll of Christians in Scotland has identified a “palpable feeling of exclusion” from public life. In the survey of over 1,000 Scots, more than 70 per cent of those identifying as Christian felt that the Scottish government does not support them, the Herald newspaper reports. Three quarters of Christian respondents said they were concerned about…
Discipline Tribunal hearing to be rescheduled
The Clergy Discipline Tribunal hearing into allegations against Bishop Anne Dyer, scheduled for September 2024, has been postponed following an application on behalf of the Bishop for further preparation time. The request was granted by the Tribunal. The hearing was scheduled to begin on 10 September 2024 in Edinburgh, and work is now underway to…
Last call for views on ‘assisted dying’
There are three weeks remaining during which submissions can be made to the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee ‘Call for Views’ on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. The purpose of the call for evidence is to gather views on the Bill which will inform the Committee’s scrutiny. The…
Trinity 8: A vision of a new humanity
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 21 July 2024. ‘So yes, we are all sheep without a shepherd until we receive Jesus Christ.’
Upcoming Bishop search process and Diocesan description
A message from the Rt Rev Andrew Swift, Acting Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway: “The election of a new Bishop is a vital part of the life and ministry of a Scottish Episcopal diocese. As you say farewell to Bishop Kevin, please keep in prayer him and Elspeth and all those who will be part…
Trinity 7: What was true then is true today
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 14 July 2024. ‘The lessons of King David, King Herod and of the church in Ephesus are all there for us to receive and ponder.’
Trinity 6: ‘Find yourself in Me’
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 7 July 2024. ‘Our ministries and areas of Christian service are never our possessions. They are always those areas of serving that are entrusted to us by the Lord.’
Commentary: Where do truth and justice lie?
The General Election was called and somehow the power in the land passed from its politicians and government into the hands of the media, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It is now the journalists, editors, presenters, commentators and pollsters who were making the running as each party, its leaders and manifestoes are held up to examination,…
Trinity 5: Faith with courage
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 30 June 2024. ‘Just as King David rose above his grief at the death of Saul and Jonathan, so also Jairus and the unnamed woman of Capernaum had to step outside their comfort zones …’
Celebration service for Bishop Kevin Pearson + Acting Bishop named
A celebration service for the Rt Rev Kevin Pearson, Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway, was held on Saturday 29 June at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow. Over 300 people filled the cathedral, coming together to honour Bishop Kevin as he prepares to retire later this summer, 44 years after he was ordained to…
Trinity 4: The utter glory and majesty of the love of God in Jesus
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 23 June 2024. ‘Never just a feeling or an emotion – rather a living truth that transcends all other realities.’
Scottish Episcopal Church found to have been using NDAs
The Scottish Episcopal Church has made use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), the Church Times has discovered — even though the Primus, the Most Revd Mark Strange, has questioned whether they are appropriate, saying: “I don’t think anyone should be silenced.” In an interview for the Church Times podcast, Bishop Strange, who has been the Primus since 2017, said:…
Trinity 3: Our shepherd, teacher and saviour
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 16 June 2024. ‘Yes, this is Jesus Christ: the Word who expressed the will of God in creation and who came among us to rescue from ourselves and restore us to that place where God is from everlasting to everlasting.’
General Synod 2024: Reports
The Scottish Episcopal Church held the 2024 meeting of its General Synod on 13-15 June at St Paul’s & St George’s Church, York Place, Edinburgh. Documents are available on the Provincial website, which also carries day-by-day reports of proceedings: Synod reaches agreement on Israel-Palestine Day 2 of Synod: Historic links to the slave trade Day 2…
Bishop Dyer case expected to cost Scottish Episcopal Church £½m
The disciplinary process concerning the Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, is expected to cost the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) more than £500,000, The Sunday Times has reported. Accounts published in advance of this week’s meeting of the Church’s General Synod show that £325,000 was spent last year on legal and other fees related to…
Trinity 2: Spiritual kinship with Jesus
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 9 June 2024. ‘Those who follow the purposes of God in their lives are also those to whom He has dedicated His life.’
Trinity 1: ‘Speak, for your servant is listening’
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 2 June 2024. ‘We also are here for the sake of the Lord and in order to offer a light and a hope to others.’
Trinity: God has taken the initiative for the whole of humanity
Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 26 May 2024. ‘At Christmas we celebrate God coming into the world in Jesus; at Easter we celebrate His victory over sin and death. At Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. And at Trinity we celebrate all three at once.’
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