What
is a Preamble?
And
a Constitution?
We
have our Church, king, and fatherland;
With
these we find no fault and are content.
In
them the folk become as one.
The
Holy Body and Blood
Of
the Son of God,
Held
in the sacred silver cup,
Knit
us together in a deep
And
wonderful way.
Our
Christian king, the father
Of
all in the clan,
Distributes
justice
Without
the gall of fav’ritism.
In
this man, we behold our history:
Ev’ry
joy and sorrow,
Ev’ry
custom, old and dear.
We
wearies himself on our behalf,
And
our love for him has no bounds.
The
fatherland is our common home and life.
Though
seemingly separate,
All
our lives are woven together
In
the same rivers and trees,
Mountains
and lakes, rains and winds.
We
walk upon the same soil,
Build
our homes upon it,
Bury
our dead within it.
Our
crops and livestock
Are
nourished by it.
Through
Christian living,
The
Holy Ghost hallows it.
The
land embraces ev’ry one of us,
And
in each heart, there is the fatherland.
We
know no other faith
Than
the Orthodoxy
Of
our forebears:
The
Faith of the Apostles and Councils,
Devout husbands and wives,
Hidden
hermits and public pastors,
Angels
singing praises.
The
Church’s ethos of asceticism
And
repentance we dare not
Cast
aside: simplicity,
Fasting,
lowly-mindedness,
Bodily
labor, discomfort,
Tears,
prayer, love.
The
Church is our folk,
And
our folk is the Church.
Our
prayer to the end will be,
‘Lord
Jesus Christ, have mercy,
Son
of God, on us,
A
people by sin undone!’
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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