I suspect that none of us expected the western world to change as it has following the inauguration of the new administration in the USA in January, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. As weeks went by however, more and more of our easy assumptions were challenged and some were swept away. One newspaper columnist thought that…

Crime, instability, uncertainty, confusion: the list goes on, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. For some, it is the system, so change the system and the rest will follow. Of course, we need to say what we mean by ‘The System’ and then how it should be reformed or replaced. But then we must ask, ‘What with?’…

The New Year’s Honours list gives due recognition to those who have excelled in sport, entertainment or public service, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. And yes, we are duly respectful of their honours and the public recognition of their success. And yet, I wonder: we may admire success – but somehow failure seems to be more…

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…

‘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.’

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…

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,…

The date 3 September 1989 still rings bells with me, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It is not just that it was 50 years since the declaration of war by the British Government on Nazi Germany, but it was also the day when the first non-dictatorial regime had come to office in Poland since 1939. The…

I suppose that it is unavoidable to compare Easter with Christmas, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Christmas is in deep winter, when our nights are dark and the weather is cold. Our images are of snow-clad landscapes and city scenes. And then the story is definitely a family story: a mother having a baby, in hard…

I suppose that one of the most intriguing paradoxes of our time is the sense of self, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. We definitely live in a time of seeking to achieve and fulfil ourselves, to deepen our sense of our identity, achieve our ambitions and to live full and meaningful lives. Yet this set of…

It must have been developing for some time, but it is now getting faster and faster, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. No, this is not about HS2 – another costly rail project for the Home Counties. More, it is the inversion of reality. Truth does not exist – except as perceived and promoted by certain interest…

This autumn seems to be beset by despondency, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It is not just the posturing and point-scoring that we get during the political conference season. In part it may be the feeling that national agendas are being driven by political and cultural extremes, which gain currency by being deaf to all questions…

This is a strange time, when the news is full of personal and national tragedy, the sporting calendar continues apace and the national mood is either elated of sunk in depression, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Not being particularly sporting myself, most of its content passes me by and those sports that do interest me are…

I can’t help finding feeling profoundly confused, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. On one hand, all sense of personal responsibility, never mind regulation, seems to be wholly rejected and each of us is to be the arbiter of our own lifestyles, priorities, morality and of course, spiritual life. The theme here is that I should be…

I keep finding that there is something slightly discordant in the life of faith, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. We attend church and worship God. We greet one another and we contribute to the church collection. We take part in the life of the church and in assisting its activities. Much of this take place in…

At one time matters of faith and science were presented as being wholly opposed to one another, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Faith was a conversation with God whose existence was unprovable, and so unreasonable. Science was a conversation with the observable world and universe and so was wholly reasonable, free of any taint of superstition….

One of the most misunderstood words around today must be ‘Apocalyptic’, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It has been fashionable for some years now. The film about the war in Vietnam, ‘Apocalypse Now’ dealt with a dysfunctional mission to deal with a rogue officer. There is a full genre of fiction dealing with a ‘post-apocalyptic’ world…

We will all have noted the European Championship success of the English women’s football team and I would heartily congratulate them, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Not being a particular enthusiast for athletics and ball-based sports, I am inclined to leave it at that. But there is one aspect that makes me think a little more…

Writing these notes near the end of Eastertide, I am now looking towards the Ascension of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. They are linked in that first of all the church was celebrating the ascension of Jesus to His place in heaven where He would be accessible to all believers…

I suppose that the astonishment we feel at the Russian invasion of Ukraine is matched most closely by the progressive collapse of the Iron Curtain during the autumn of 1989, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Every month another East European country shrugged off the communist straightjacket and emerged blinking into a new era of choice and…

We have all felt the sense of uncertainty in these days, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Apart from the threat of war in Ukraine – and the question of just how far it would be restricted to that country, there is the rising cost of living in this country and of course the effects of Brexit…