This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
We believe
We believe
We believe in God the Father,
who never sides with any race,
but accepts from ev'ry nation
all those who fear and seek his face.
We believe he sent his message
to all his people Israel,
telling them good news of Jesus,
who is God and Lord of all.
We believe in Christ our Saviour,
on whom God's Spirit came to rest
for a ministry of goodness,
and healing those who were oppressed.
We believe he was the victim
of crucifixion on a tree,
but God gave him resurrection
from the grave, and set him free.
We believe Christ's resurrection
was seen by witnesses God chose:
then they ate and drank with Jesus,
and so we're certain that he rose.
We believe that God appointed
this Jesus Christ as judge from heav'n.
Holy Scripture now exhorts us
to believe and be forgiv'n.
We believe the Holy Spirit
who came with power on God's Son,
also comes to those who trust him,
and fills believers, every one.
We believe that God commanded
his people, here and ev'rywhere:
we must preach and tell all nations
of this Christ whom they can share.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Based on Acts 10:34-44
Story behind the song
Acts 10:34-33 is one of the bible readings set for Easter Sunday in the Church of England's scheme of readings: it shows how the basic message of the gospel was Jesus: his life, death and resurrection. On Easter Sunday 2007 we didn't use it as one of the readings, but it occurred to me beforehand that we could take phrases from it and use them as an affirmation of faith - which we did (you can find this about half way down this page). And on Easter Sunday afternoon, I wondered if the creed ideas could be turned into a song, and wrote these words.
I'm very grateful to friends from the Christian Songwriting Organisation e-mail list for suggestions for improvements to the words, and in particular to Dave Davis and Michael Lehr for their sustained help.
At first I wondered if I could set the words to Stenza Rakin, but it soon became obvious to me that I needed a different rhythm in the even-numbered lines. Following discussion of one of Stuart Townend's tunes (that to "How deep the Father's love for us, which essentially is in 5/2 time), I conceived of this tune in 7/4 time, and I'm grateful to Michael Lehr for correspondence about how one might make the rhythm "feel right" in such an odd time-signature. Most tunes in 7/4 subdivide the bar into a longer "half" followed by a shorter "half", and this tune is peculiar in doing it the other way round and having the shorter "half" first. There's a corresponding risk that the second half-bar will feel as if it has an unwarranted pause in its middle, and it's thanks to Michael that I've managed to write the harmonies in a way which makes the pause seem like a feature rather than an accident.
And besides that, I'm highly honoured that Michael has come up with an alternative tune, also essentially in 7/4, but this time with the first 3/4 "half bar" being in 6/8 instead. You can find it at: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/mlehr/reflec/webelieve/webelieve2.mid and I think it's a great tune!
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.