The World Council of Churches (WCC) has issued an invitation to write, compose, and/or arrange a version of the Nicene Creed.
The year 2025 will mark 1700 years since the gathering of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. The 6th World Conference of the Faith and Order of the WCC will be held in Egypt from October 24 – 28, 2025. For more information on the conference, you may visit the website or download the brochure.
As the work on the spiritual life of the conference is ongoing, the WCC is reaching out to the global network of musicians, arrangers and composers for the submission of hymns and songs that captures and expresses the essence of the Christian faith which we see in the articles of the Nicene Creed. You may view a sample hymn text and an mp3 audio file as an example. This was done by Coptic Orthodox choir from Fiji.
Admittedly, there are some overlaps between the more well-known Apostles Creed and the lesser-known Nicene Creed. However, given that the event is focusing on the Council of Nicaea and the resulting creed, the WCC is aiming to have a very specific and targeted focus on the text of the Nicene Creed being set for congregational singing.
This is an invitation to write, compose, and/or arrange a version of the Nicene Creed that the WCC is seeking to publish and share as widely as possible in time for the 6th World Conference. If you already know of such, we ask of you to kindly share with us and to also include the copyright details, should it be someone else’s work. At the same time, we also hope that this invitation will lead to inspiration, on your part, to contribute your original arrangement of a song or hymn based on the Nicene Creed.
The WCC has two intentions regarding the submissions that are received. First, to collate these and to publish a small song book that can also be seen as a supplementary hymnal in various traditions all of which will be various representations of the Nicene Creed. Second, it is this volume which will serve as the main source of songs that will be incorporated in the spiritual life at the 6th World Conference next year.
You may send your submission to Nicaea2025@wcc-coe.org. The initial deadline is November 30, 2024. As usual, with the submission of original work, the WCC will thereafter follow up with the required copyright permission forms for your work.