the creed.

Right now, I'm sitting in Wood-Mar Auditorium watching my teammates rehearse "The Creed." We're in the theatre space, the place where a young girl arrived in New York in the 1920s to find love, the place where Harlequin watched women change genders to get the men they loved, and the place where three scenes showed broken people trying to put their lives together. This is our space, the only space where those in the theatre feel truly at home. Backstage are flats, leftover set pieces, table saws, ladders and paint cans. And we're adding our own story to this stage. That of the creed.

The first time I saw the George Fox University Players perform "The Apostle's Creed," it was a beautiful tangible explosion of culture and language. Represented was traditional and expressive, Spanish and French, sound language and sign language. It was a celebration of One God, many names; One faith, many tongues; One way, many road signs. The performers layered over one another, voice on top of voice, each saying the ancient words in a different way, creating a cacophony of praise. It was brilliant, in the lighted sense of the word.

And now we're doing our own version for our trip to PNG, with Pidgin and Arabic replacing Spanish and French. Languages we as team members speak, plus languages those we are visiting speak. A fusion. A messy, loud, jumbled confusion, speaking the name of Jesus. And it is the most beautiful sound - perhaps like what God hears at all times: the Creed in every tribe's tongue, even those that don't know his name.

We believe.

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The Apostle's Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.

Amen.