Questions over burials (From Oxford Mail)

Questions over burials

10:30am Monday 30th April 2012 in Letters

I am very glad to know that the nine 16th and 17th-century bodies, uncovered 20 years ago by archaeologists at Eynsham Abbey, are to receive proper burials rather than continuing to languish in an archaeology storeroom (Oxford Mail, April 14).

However, I am concerned by Father Flatman’s insistence that they are given purely Roman Catholic burials.

Five hundred years after their deaths, none of us can possibly be certain that we have a window into these men and women’s souls, except for the very strong likelihood that they were all Christians.

Rather than fanning the flames of Christian division and enmity, wouldn’t it be much better if Fr Flatman could join together with his Church of England, Methodist and Baptist brothers and sisters, in Eynsham, to hold a joint Christian burial service, so that these nine Oxfordshire ancestors of ours can finally rest in peace?

RICHARD SAMUELSON, South Street, Middle Barton