You may find some parts of this distressing

Dear friends,

I remember being horrified as a young theological college student. My extra curricular interest in Roman archaeology had led me into a dusty corner of the college library, where the periodical Biblical Archaeology Review gave colourful updates on the latest digs, mostly in Israel/Palestine, but sometimes elsewhere in the Romanized world of the Ancient Near East. A recent excavation of a late Roman bathhouse (Ashkelon, 1988) had discovered the intact skeletons of almost 100 infants in the large sewer beneath the structure. The working hypothesis was that these unfortunates were all newborns, unwanted, and discarded at birth by being thrown into the drain and left to drown.

I read a little more. The Roman world was one where “family planning” was done, not before conception, but after birth. The head of the household, after a birth, would have the final word in whether he would provide for the child, or whether it should be “got rid of”. The mother had no rights at all. Unwanted children might be given away to friends or family members, or adopted by an infertile couple. However according to the Roman writers Seneca, Philo and Cicero, unwanted infants could also be drowned, thrown away with the rubbish, smothered, exposed to the elements, eaten by stray dogs or sold to slave traffickers. It was not considered a crime to kill a child until 374 AD.

On reading this, I remember sitting for a while in (culture) shock. The world I lived in regarded all life as sacred, and we had special care baby units to keep premature infants alive until their own bodies were grown enough to survive unaided. The state gave special help to unmarried mothers, providing housing and an allowance. The vulnerable young woman, and her unborn/newborn were given equal status (worth) in law as any other individual.

Why do we now think and act this way, and not think and act how the Romans did ? One answer to this must be (at least in the last century) the advance of technology, allowing us to help in situations of extremis where previously there was powerlessness. But a more fundamental reason (why we help at all) is the one highlighted by Tom Holland in his magnum opus “Dominion”. Our culture and legal basis of “equality of worth for all” is a deeply Christian principle, one only arrived at after many centuries of wrestling with faith, scripture, and the lived inheritance of history. We are, each of us,  loved by God. We know this because Christ died for us. Our equality is on the basis that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, and that  “God so loved the world that he gave his only son”. This theological revolution has over the centuries been enshrined in our culture and laws. Both rich and poor, powerful or helpless have equal worth under law because of this theological foundation. It is a precious gift, not to be taken for granted.

The Roman world is not far below the surface, and it is not just in the warmer parts of the Mediterranean. In 2011 researchers were archiving the collections from old Buckinghamshire museums. Whilst going through the materials from the small former museum at Hambledon, near Henley, they came across artefacts from the 1912 excavation of the site of a Roman villa in a field towards Mill End. In numerous small cardboard boxes they found the bones of 97 newborn infants, dating back to the 2-4th centuries. It seems that this upmarket villa and workshop was, like the bathhouse at Ashkelon, a place where the unwanted were exposed. Unsurprisingly, this is not something that Henley estate agents make much of.

Worship Services for Sunday 22nd September

9.30am Holy Communion at St John’s Stoke Row with Canon Kevin Davies

11am Holy Communion at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Canon Kevin Davies.

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

Nature Notes.

The blue tits are very grateful that the feeders are now being filled once again, as is the magpie, who has developed a technique that involves clinging on, and flapping wildly, whilst thrashing about with gouging beak as much as possible. “That’s not for you!” I shout through the window, to little avail. The fat pigeon, meanwhile, hoovers up beneath the black and white flurry, hoping to escape anyone’s notice.

The sunflowers have been magnificent this year – and they are tall enough to be seen from the school path over the larch-lap fencing. Apples are juicing up on the trees, although we have already started eating the drops. It is always a fine call as to when to pick – go too early and they’ll be too dry, leave it too long and the maggots will be too well established. Patience with discernment, methinks. The cold snap has stopped the beans and courgettes almost dead. The plants are still green and good, but nothing is now being produced. I’ll let them enjoy a few more days of sunshine, while they may. The (outdoor) maincrop tomatoes are struggling to ripen. Hopefully the coming few warmer days will change that picture. Whatever, there are plenty of jars waiting should the outcome be green tomato chutney. But, that, as they say on the shop floor, is not my department.

Of course now I’ve put the wooden table and chairs away for a bit of pre-winter servicing, the sun has come out again. Although, as tempting as it is to sit out, and as much as I am prone to recommend the “taking of a moment”, there are times and seasons, in the garden, in life, when you just have to admit that there is too much to do, make a list, and get on with it.

May  the Lord bless you and keep you always in his love

Canon Kevin.

PS Thank God that we now value all life, and offer support and care for parents who have lost a child in any of the stages of pregnancy, at birth, or in the early years. Thank God too for all those who work at the special care baby unit at the RBH.