If you are looking for a beautiful religious hymn for your church wedding – I have come across some alternative words to Gustav Holst’s beautiful hymn “I vow to Thee my Country” (Thaxted 192)
I think he would have much prefered these alternative words, as he wasn’t patriotic at all and would have hated how patriotic his beautiful song has become with the words, we know mostly know it for.
Here are the alternative words by Cecil Spring-Rice:
We pledge to one another before the Lord above,
Entire and whole and perfect, this union of our love;
a love that will be patient, a love that will be wise, that will not
twist with envy nor lose itself in lies;
a love that will not falter, a love to hold us fast, and bind us together
as long as life shall last.
We pray that God will guide us through all the years to be.
Our lives be shaped by courage, hope and serenity.
Through joy and celebration, through loneliness and pain,
may loyalty, compassion and tenderness remain, that those
who share the blessing of love that cannot cease, may walk the paths of gentleness, into the place of peace.
Wedding Singer UK 