It was once a common response to any kind of annoyance or disturbance that ‘There should be a law against it’, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. The strange thing is that these days, there probably is. Any perceived insult, any critical comment, any expression of dissent outside the norms of progressive opinion, and there is a…

Waiting can be extremely tedious, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Waiting for a bus, an appointment, a letter or just for the rain to stop. It is a pastime immersed in incredible boredom, unless relieved by having something to read or to think about. But then there is another kind of waiting, such as in a…

The plea goes up for justice – and that ‘our claim is just’, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. The cynic might say that nobody openly makes a claim that they know to be unjust and even WW2 began with Hitler’s demand for the restoration of the Danzig corridor to German control as if it had been…

We have just resumed our worship in church after a lockdown of some three months, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. For some of us it has been tedious as we are denied the company of friends and the pursuit of out of home activities. But in coming together again there is that sense of regathering, renewal,…

It is really strange seeing the signs of springtime appearing while the life of the church and much of the city has been stilled, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Conditions in almost all aspects of life are still highly unpredictable, in terms of the weather, progress of the Covid pandemic, the restarting of our national life,…

The swell approaches the rocky shore at an angle, about 45 degrees, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Instead of being absorbed by the shore, it bounces off, also at an angle of around 45 degrees. The boat making its way along the shore has to maintain its course while managing two swells, and this can be…

“I want, I want, I don’t know what I want.” I believe that these words come from a play, ‘The Insect’ by the Capeks. They somehow reflect a lot of what people feel today, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. We resent the salaries and bonuses paid to bankers but we still want our savings to be…

November is normally a busy month, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It starts with our celebration of All Saints as our patronal festival, soon followed and observed more reflectively by All Souls. In the middle there is our Remembrance-tide commemoration and we climax with Christ the King before Advent is upon us. This year our time…

I think that we all grew up surrounded by music, much of it in the folk and pop traditions, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. The themes were often about love – romantic yearnings, fulfilments, frustrations and derelictions. Love rarely went beyond this and so it became more and more about self-finding, self-fulfilment, self-realisation in a relationship…

There is a strong sense of confusion abroad, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It is there in politics, the economy, social life and in culture. Much of what has not been locked down is defensive, insecure, and reduced to confusion. What was once taken as read is now questioned, as the sins of previous generations are…

As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus we are also confronting what must be the most persistent and intractable of fears: death. Today it is the great taboo, writes Rev Sydney Maitland, to be laughed off like a trifle if anyone were so indelicate as to mention it out of place. Yes, we meet it…

In my notes for the magazine for February I commented that we were living in a lull and while I felt that something was coming, I had no idea what it would be, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Now we know – at least in part. Whereas war is violent, noisy and dramatic, this Covid-19 is…

I suppose that this is the lull before whatever comes next, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. In our lessons in church this is the period after the Epiphany and before Lent. In the diocese we have a bishop-elect whose translation to the diocese is expected to be in May and who will have the summer to…

A world of venal rulers and corrupt officials, self-interested religious leaders and an occupying army seemingly at liberty to do what it liked, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. No authentic voice of faith for 400 years and believers a beleaguered minority, easy meat for any and all kinds of abuse. This was the Holy Land in…

“WE WON, YOU LOST, SO *?#@ OFF’. This sentiment is not unique to our politics but is very much in evidence today, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. But then much of our national life is fractured, with divisions between left and right, north and south, town and country, as well as between different nations in the…

The claims of justice reach ever further into our lives, and this is a multi-faced kind of justice, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. There is social justice, racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, sexual justice and so on and so on. All are about establishing some kind of claim on the rest of society – and…

August 6 is memorable for two quite different reasons, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. In the church we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, when Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and there met Moses and Elijah where they discussed Jesus’ coming crucifixion in Jerusalem. In this, Jesus’ robes where transformed into a…

The idea of equality has become more and more prominent in discussing public affairs, but it is not always set out just what we mean by it, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. In the bible all are equally created by God, and all equally die, even though the manner and circumstances of birth and death greatly…

We are all familiar with the idea of evolution, which in our culture seems to have the standing of holy writ rather than a theory of science, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. As a theory of science it is subject to proof and if that proof is not sufficiently robust, it may be falsified or at…

There seems to be noting so dear to our media as a scandal, especially a sexual one and especially a sexual scandal in the church, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It certainly feeds the market demand for prurient voyeurism, as readers and viewers get their fill of satisfaction from seeing another person fall apart, and especially…

The diet of films offered to a boy growing up in the 1950s and 1960s included a large number of items concerning WW2, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. The allies were shown as heroic and the enemy – especially the Nazis – were shown as robotically evil. Of course their uniforms were smarter and their equipment…

The assault was truly shocking and it was carried out with utter callousness and viciousness, leaving the victim maimed and traumatized, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. It was well publicized for the victim was well-known and much respected. And then a suspect was identified, interviewed and charged. He is now in the dock of the criminal…

During a recent Tuesday evening Eucharist, the gospel lesson was taken from Mark 1: 14-20. It tells how Jesus called His first disciples when walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee. First He called Peter and Andrew who were in their boat, casting their fishing net and they came. Then He found James…

The headlines seem to become ever more violent and not just because of the events of the day, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. The emotions become ever more extreme, the mood swings more pronounced and the personalities vie with one another for prominence and coverage. No criticism is too slight to be ignored or to be…

This month will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, writes Rev Sydney Maitland, and despite the traumas of regathering the remnants of European Jewry from the charnel houses of the Holocaust, (as well as those dwelling in but expelled from North African and other Arab lands), and then in…

At Easter we are celebrating life in many aspects, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. Supremely, it is the life that Jesus assumed at His conception and which was made visible at His birth; but it is also the life that He lived, both the hidden years before His baptism in the Jordan, and the few years…

‘Absolutely outrageous!’ – ‘Totally unacceptable!’ – ‘Utterly scandalous!’ The cries of disapproval resonate throughout the public space, whether in print, broadcast or on the net, writes Rev Sydney Maitland. And they do indeed protest very vigorously against a crime, an offence against decency or women, or a spectacularly poor explanation of some exercise in political…