Type Activism, Neopaganism | Region English Midlands | |
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Formation 18 March 1985 (1985-03-18) Slogan Campaigning for a Sovereign & Pagan Mercia in the Midlands Website sovereignmercia.webs.com | ||
Sovereign Mercia is an organisation that campaigns to establish a sovereign Mercian state in the English Midlands, and to generally promote the culture and identity of the region. Sovereign Mercia recognises the traditional Saint Alban's Cross charged with the white, double-headed Eagle of Leofric as the Mercian national flag, and has proposed Life is a Beautiful Book (Stephanie de Sykes, 1974) as the Mercian national anthem, since it was used as the ATV Midlands start-up theme and therefore has a strong regional association.
Overview
Sovereign Mercia was founded in Birmingham in 1985, as the Ordo Anno Mundi (current name adopted 2008), with the aim of promoting the pre-Christian Mercian religion, a branch of Anglo-Saxon paganism, taking as its inspiration texts such as the Prose Edda and Oera Linda Book. It also became involved in the campaign for access to ancient sacred sites, such as stone circles. From 1993 it has held its annual conference during the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance each September in Staffordshire, and from 2015 at the Middle Earth Festival, Sarehole Mill, Birmingham. Its policies include the establishment of a legislature chosen by lot (sortition), an annually elected head of government, and a Pagan religious order of priestesses to serve as the judiciary and provide the head of state. Birmingham, the largest city in the Midlands, and located at the centre of its transport network, is proposed as the Mercian capital, and is the venue for Pagan & Magickal Birmingham, Sovereign Mercia's weekly public meetings.
The following 22 historic counties of England are recognised by Sovereign Mercia as constituting Mercia: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Holland, Huntingdonshire, Isle of Ely, Kesteven, Leicestershire, Lindsey, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.