Said that sadness gripped the country

During a service in the Cathedral, the new bishop of Iceland, Rev. Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir, said that sadness gripped the country at the opening of Alþingi government due to the difficult events in recent weeks and that many people had turned to the church because of them.

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"We are all saddened"

She said that the task of all of us is to work for the welfare of the people in the country, especially children and young people. It would be necessary to create meaningful lives for children that do not only take place in front of screens and on social media. A society where every single person would be valued.

"We can walk together"

She said she had previously commented that she was satisfied with the separation of church and state.

"The church must be independent in its preaching, but that does not mean that the state and the church should be completely disconnected," adding that the state set the law but the church preached love and took care of souls.

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"We are all shocked"

"We can walk together despite our different opinions because our hearts all beat for the well-being of the people in the country."

Not good to end up in an echo chamber

The bishop spoke about how working in government was not for the complicit. It takes a certain maturity to be able to get along and even care about people even if they disagree with us on many issues.

She said that a person is so much more than their opinions, let alone what appears on social media, and mentioned that it is not good to surround yourself with people who share the same opinion as yourself in all cases. Then people found themselves in an echo chamber.

Money is not life itself

The bishop mentioned the story of the dance around the golden calf, which is about people worshiping something empty. She said the dance is a symbol of our greed and desire for worldly goods and an example of us losing sight of what actually matters in life. She said money, however, certainly brings us a roof over our heads and food on our table.

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"Should not happen in our society"

"They are tools we use in life but they are not life itself," she said, adding that money is a good servant but a bad master and an even worse god.

She mentioned that Alþingi had an important role to play in this role because every society needs rules to steer us away from the golden calf.