Sunday, October 16, 2005

MORE ATTACKS ON CHURCHES

From early this morning reports came in from Jatimulya, East Bekasi, in West Java about 45 minutes drive from Jakarta.

Three churches here were closed down 5 weeks ago by the Mayor and enforced by the Alliance Against Apostasy and since that time have held services in the streets. They were warned last week to stop and the church service was very short, but these Christians believe in upholding the constitution of Indonesia which guarantees the freedom of religion, so they called on the government and the police to protect that freedom.

Today they again came into the streets to worship the Lord. They have been stopped from using their church buildings, forbidden from worshipping in their homes, so they only have the streets left.

However, this morning the situation became very critical. The three churches, Lutheran (HKBP), Presbyterian (Gekindo) and Pentecostal (GPdI) have been holding services on the street and there they have been terrorized.

Last week when they came to hold a service, they were only allowed however after about 50 lawyers from Jakarta came to attend the service together so that the meeting was able to continue as normal. Today the Islamic radicals have laid out their prayer mats on the road where the church has been gathering and 300 Muslims conducted their own Islamic worship service and prayers to prevent the Christian service from taking place. But the congregations were determined to hold their service and moved to another street. Amazing!

How is the solidarity of the Church?

Nevertheless it was feared that it was possible that a physical attack could take place against them if these congregations continue to hold their service and their fears were realized.

After the church congregation moved to another road, the radicals became very angry and approached the congregation that was about to hold their service and attacked them. They mocked and insulted them with swear words and called on them to disbandon.

Rev Anna, pastor of GEKINDO who is the chairman of the Gekindo Synod was pushed and shoved till she fell into a drain and was mocked and insulted. The police on duty, just stood and watched, and some of them even joined in with the mob.

The commitment of the Christians was strong in the face of the opposition and they continued on with the service in the streets before disbanding and going home. This afternoon several Christian lawyers have together with all the local church leaders to decide on how to respond to the situation.

If they continue on with church services next weekend there is a great danger that blood will be shed.

Meanwhile in West Java, three mayors (Bekasi, Bandung and Sukabumi) have issued a decree closing down three more churches, (GGP, GPDI, and GKP) The mayor of Sukabumi has also called for the closing down of all churches without permits in his town.

This move against the churches continues to spread and in the city of Malang, East Java, 24 churches are under threat while some have been closed down in the last two weeks as well. In Jakarta, 18 churches in North Jakarta are wondering when their turn will come after police collected data on their services during the last few weeks.

It seems that this movement will continue to escalate and the Government is not being honest when they make international statements saying they do not agree with these closures when it is government officials who are providing the decrees to close them down. We are in for an interesting period of time.

In Poso there has been an increase of “visitors” and there have been 3 assassinations in the last 2 weeks. Last night and today all the churches in Poso and Palu were placed under police guard. What’s going to happen next?