By Rev Nicholas Sykes

The medieval Church used to promote the idea that there might be a special place for the souls of infants that die unbaptised that is neither heaven nor hell. The origin of the idea is clearly in the conflict between the apparent innocence of a newborn child and the observed fact that it is necessary to teach children the social arts, and unnecessary to teach them how to be selfish.

What then does Christianity teach about this matter?

Do children begin as innocents, or are we all born in a state of sin, being tainted from conception with original sin?

In a paradoxical mystery, it is probably fair to say that it teaches both, and affirms that our children do in early infancy display both innocence and the propensity to sin. The Church observes the Feast of the “Holy Innocents” of Bethlehem as well as holding a doctrine of Original Sin.

Genesis chapter 2 verses 18-20 depicts the age of innocence for mankind as a whole, and shows a state of innocence as well as order in man’s relationship with cattle and birds and beasts of the field. There is an order in the way it is intended for us to live with the fauna and flora. They are not necessarily going to help us, and we are not necessarily going to be able to tame some of them, but they clearly have a place in God’s scheme of things that we ought to respect. We are responsible to God for maintaining an order in which they and we can live in the same world. Genesis 2 verses 23-24 also shows a state of innocence in the marital relationship between man and woman. We can see how innocence is fundamentally related to order. When innocence is lost, there has been a breach in the intended order of God’s creation. The Preface to the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer directs the Presbyter to remind all present that Holy Matrimony is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man’s innocency. This is a touching thought, and the traditional dress of the bride underlines the innocence of the institution, and not just of herself. There are, of course other very weighty things said about Matrimony in that Prayer Book Preface.

Hebrews chap1 verses 1-4 and chap 2 verses 5-12 focus on the purifying and sanctifying capability of the Son of God, who made purification for the sins of the world by the sacrifice of the Cross, and who being appointed the heir of all things is crowned with glory and honour, and is in expectation of the visible subjection of the whole creation to Himself. In other words, we might say that though the innocence that the creation was made to display and that we need and desire was lost, still by the power of the purification made by Jesus, it is to be restored. By taking our part in this by faith in Jesus’ name, the grace of God who brought about this forthcoming purification and restoration is extended to us one by one. Moreover, in the light of Jesus’ teaching on marriage in Mark chap 10 verses 2-12, it befits us to consider how we can not only uphold but also restore the innocency of the institution of marriage in our common life. Jesus says elsewhere that the faithfully celibate life too is a sign of the innocency and order of the Kingdom of God.

The Church herself has been tempted especially in recent times to downgrade marriage from the pinnacle of human relationships to which Jesus Himself and Christian teaching in general raises it. Those of us who are married should all be engaged in a personal effort to keep our marriages at the highest level of which we are capable, and it is necessary for us to know that God Himself calls us to this effort. The Church has traditionally taught that this is a special calling or vocation, and at every stage of our life there are perspectives and principles that we should adopt that will foster its fundamental innocency, and in cases where innocence has been lost or obscured, to help to rescue us from the loss and aid in the restoration. One of the first things to note is that for marriage there is no approved substitute. Jesus teaches, quoting Genesis 2, “From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

It should not really have to be said that what Jesus Himself taught to be marriage excludes any idea that marriage could be between members of the same sex. Any law that says otherwise is deliberately changing the essential meaning of marriage, and therefore destroying that pinnacle of human relationships to which Jesus Himself and Christian teaching in general have raised it, a pinnacle that up to recent times civilisation has been content to acknowledge and protect. But it must in any case be said that what Jesus taught to be marriage excludes the idea that it could ever be right or a good thing to live together or have sexual relations for a trial period before matrimony. The becoming “one flesh” is in the context of a man and his wife being joined, and not of a provisional couple that might sometime in the future become man and wife; for Jesus says of this union, “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” There is more than enough statistical evidence to show how right the traditional Christian position is. On the whole those who live together before marrying have in some studies a greater likelihood by about 60% of marital breakdown, than those who do not. Those who have been prepared to be innocent in going into it, can work it better. Because all of us must admit to a lack of innocence in one form or another, in thought or action, we need all the more the grace of God. That grace of God is the good news for everybody unmarried or married, in whatever condition we are in or whatever history our marriages and preparation for them may have had.

For commentary, information and devotional material see www.churchofenglandcayman.com and www.anglicansatprayer.org