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the churches in Indonesia

(an alternative approach to understanding the ecumenical movement in Indonesia)

by Rev. D. R. Maitimoe

1. As I studied, the information sheet about ASFOR, my attention was drawn to the following paragraph:

Conversely, secretaries need to reflect on the meaning and relevance of the Christian Faith in the Asian struggle. But, this theology must be one which is sensitive to the socio-political climate of our societies in which the SCMs move. What is needed then is a “political theology” which prepares national leaders/workers to confront both the issues of faith and the world.

I do agree fully with these two motivations for this kind of leadership program. However, to the aim of being sensitive to the socio-political climate of societies in which we move, I want to add one more paragraph on the same line; namely, to be also sensitive to the socio - cultural patterns and structures of societies in which we move. Therefore, what is needed then, is not only a "political theology ", but also a "sociological theology" which prepares national leaders or workers to confront both the issues of existing church structures and forms as inherited from the missionary past in Asia and the emerging socio-cultural structures of our developing societies.

All of us are members of a certain church. But we are at the same time deeply involved and committed to our national SCM. In our church life, we are expected to be faithful in worship and church atten-

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dance or other church activities, according to certain patterns and aims in the tradition of our churches. And the kind of church structures we have does not give too much room for sharing functionally with SCM members and leaders who belong to other churches with other traditions of worship and other patterns of church structures. But we need to gain opportunities to worship together, to pray together, to study the Bible and to witness together without being prevented by different traditions and structures of church life.

I think the SCM situation related to the traditions and structures of the churches in our Asian countries is the same.

Christians in each country are facing the same challenges and they have the same obedience to meet the challenges in socio-cultural, ecumenical and political affairs as they arise from the demands of our developing countries. But somehow, at least in our Indonesian situation, many of the youth and student leaders have the feeling and experience that the conditioning situation of our churches does not support them to get what they need in order to face and meet the challenges of society together!

In many of our cities, the SCM branches do not feel they get the support of the local churches. There are tensions, or there is status quo, and everybody goes on his own way. What is the problem here?

2. The churches in Indonesia, in this case, the member churches of the Council of Churches in Indonesia started a specific ecumenical movement in 1950 as a uniting movement in order for the churches to be able to meet and face the challenges of the society together; to be able to do the missionary outreach together – on the national level, regional level and the local level – in the cities or the villages. God's people in every place, in every situation – among migrant groups, trans migrants, students, military, in new residential areas, among politicians, in industry and commerce, among harbor laborers or farm-workers – God's people together. Theologically, our churches do agree, but in our socio-cultural structures, forms and patterns, we are divided. That's why the ecumenical movement was in the first place a uniting movement as one of the pre-conditions which can make it possible for the church people to do things together, and to be able to support effective-

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ly all kinds of joint movements such as the SCM, Joint Action for Mission, and now in a specific political situation, to meet the Government concerning regulations and restrictions on religious liberty.

But again, the socio-cultural structures or patterns of our churches are still not yet in the position of pre-conditioning the possibilities to come together. And this makes all our efforts of witness ineffective, just at the critical moments in the political and constitutional life of the nation. The situation of the churches in Indonesia at the moment shows the following picture of three socio-cultural groupings with their socio-political impact:

a) the block of the member churches of the Council of Churches in Indonesia, at the moment 51 churches with approximately 5 million members;

b) the Catholic Church with approximately 4 million membership;

c) the non-Council members, who are joining together through their own fellowship, with approximately 2.5 million membership all together.

Next to these three blocks exists another fourth block which I would call as the independents. There are many small groups, such as the Jehovah witnesses, the Mormons, the Christian Scientists, and many others with approximately 0.5 million membership. This last block shows a socio-religious pressure group on all the religious groups in Indonesia, but without any political involvement or responsibility, or witness. At the moment, the Council of Churches and the Council of Catholic Bishops are cooperating very closely in all important socio-political matters.

These two groups – the Protestants and Catholics – are accepted and considered by the Government as socio-political partners in the development of the nation. The Government is trying to persuade the third and fourth blocks to join the Council of Churches, or at least to use the Council of Churches as channel for social participation.

This is the dilemma but at the same time the status quo of Christian presence and Church identity in Indonesia. Maybe you face the same situation in your country.

What is at stake here?

3. In the history of the ecumenical movement of the churches in Indonesia, we can discern four lines,

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which have been used by the churches;

a) the ecumenical movement along the confessional line, such as the Lutherans, the Methodists, or the Calvinists, the Pentecostals, the Baptists and others;

b) the ecumenical movement along the historical line, such as the churches which during the history of mission and church growth came into existence from the same source;

c) the ecumenical movement along the racial line, such as some Chinese churches who try to join together although they belong to different confessional families, or have different historical missionary backgrounds;

d) the ecumenical movement along the emerging socio-cultural line, where Christian and church groups try to find their identity and structure their presence through present social patterns or structures, such as the SCM, the ministry among the armed forces, the ecumenical parishes in residential areas, trans migrants, university campuses, new industrial areas and other developing areas of the country.

What can we learn from this kind of development in the ecumenical movement? This – that we have to make a sharp distinction between two different kinds of structures of Christian and church presence. We can label them as: formal correspondence churches and dynamic equivalence churches.

If we look back at the four lines in our Indonesian ecumenical movement, then the churches who chose the confessional line, or the historical line, or the racial line, belong to the structure of formal correspondence churches, while the last group of churches and Christians belong to the structure of the dynamic equivalence churches. In my opinion, as long as the churches and Christians are grouping themselves along the first three lines, then the ecumenical movement will still be in the same dilemma or status quo, which causes our social-political witness to be ineffective.

The challenge for keep Christian leadership in the ecumenical movement in Asia now is, to develop the ability to promote and to experiment structures of dynamic equivalence churches for the pre-conditioning of effective Christian witness in our developing societies. True Christian witness exists not in the imitation of socio-cultural forms of traditions, but in the use of appropriate socio-cultural forms to convey an impact within the society, equivalent to the impact that the early churches had on those who participated

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in the development of the societies in which they operated.

What I am trying to say is that Christian leaders in Asia have to train themselves and together develop a socio-theological and politico-theological reflection to support an effective Christian witness and presence.

4. I want to finish this presentation about churches in Indonesia with the proposal to the organizers of ASFOR '78 to reformulate the quoted paragraphs in my opening statement, as follows:

Conversely, SCM secretaries need to reflect on the meaning and relevance of the CHRISTIAN FAITH in the Asian struggle. But, this theology must be one which is sensitive to the socio-political climate and the emerging socio-cultural structures of societies in which SCMs move.

What is needed then is a “political and sociological theology” which prepares national leaders and workers to confront both the issues of faith and the world.

small group discussion