The Apostles’ Creed
Composer: Douglas Wilson and Mark Reagan, written for Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho
Text: The Apostles’ Creed
Season: Sung September 21, 2025, Beverly Heights Men’s Chorale
Beverly Heights confesses the Apostles’ Creed aloud nearly every Sunday, so a congregation hearing it sung is hearing its own words given back to it. The creed is the church’s oldest short summary of the faith, older than any denomination: twelve articles that run from the Father who made heaven and earth, through the Son who was conceived, born, crucified, buried, raised, and seated at the Father’s right hand, to the Spirit, the church, the forgiveness of sins, and the life everlasting. Christians have been baptized into these words, taught their children with them, and died with them on their lips for most of the church’s history.
This setting comes from Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, where the congregation sings it in worship. Douglas Wilson and Mark Reagan, the church’s pastor and its director of music, wrote it for that purpose, and it opens the way a catechism does: a question, “Christian, what do you believe?”, and the people’s answer, “I believe.” Beverly Heights, which shares that church’s Reformed heritage, has given it to the Men’s Chorale. Sung in men’s voices and without ornament, it sounds like what it is, a statement rather than a performance, and it is the most watched of the chorale’s recordings.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:3 and 4; 1 Timothy 3:16