Polycentric mission: creed and creation in Croatia

“We Believe in… the Lord, the Giver of Life”: Polycentric Mission from and beyond Nicea: Reflections on Earthkeeping and Power

by Cathy Ross

17 March 2025

This was the title of the most recent conference of the Central and Eastern Association for Mission Studies held in Osijek, Croatia in February. Unexpectedly it led me to the following reflections on earthkeeping and power.

I was soon to learn that the Nicene Creed (2025 marks its 1,700th anniversary) of is a very important and foundational document for Orthodox Christians, theologians and missiologists.

It was fascinating to meet Orthodox Christians from Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia as well as Protestants and Pentecostals from these same countries.

I had been asked to reflect on our MA programmes and how we had integrated them with African and Asian streams as an example of polycentric mission.

Creed compels care for creation

One doctoral student from the Orthodox tradition presented on creation care and earthkeeping all based on the first line of the Nicene Creed.

He explained that Communist ideology had a “rapacious attitude” towards the environment and that the Creed challenges that. 

He told us that one day, as he recited the first line of the Creed, “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen”, he got not further as he suddenly realised our responsibility as disciples who are called to care for creation, before God, the Maker of heaven and earth.

This then led him to begin a research project on creation care in his own context and to challenge the Orthodox church in Romania to be more committed to work towards a ‘green’ Romania.

Power and mission

Prof Klippies Kritzinger from South Africa presented some fascinating insights on power and mission.

He framed power around six concepts: power within, over, against, for, with and inward.

He claimed that we are not corrupted by power but rather we do power corruptly.

If we think of power as “the ability to act” then that was a new way for me to reflect on power.

I think I have always considered power negatively – and certainly there is much in our own and world politics to make us think like that – but perhaps it is just naive not to think more creatively about power and how we can use it for good.

He quoted South African activist Steve Biko who was killed by the apartheid state in 1977: “Powerlessness breeds a race of beggars.” If we are not be beggars and without any agency we need to leverage power appropriately.

A key principle of Citizens and of community organising is that power can change things and that as groups we can leverage power to change situations to make a difference.

Time to get up

Coming from South Africa, Klippies has a liberative approach to engaging in mission. He said that the first words of the gospel are not “turn around” (metanoia/repent) but “get up” and see who else is oppressed. That is an approach that requires the gift of sight and the willingness to exercise power.

Perhaps you might like to reflect on what power you may hold and have, not so much as an individual – although the very fact that you are reading this means you have some power – but in the groups you are part of and whether together you can begin to leverage that to make the world a better place.

Get our email newsletter:

SIGN UP