This paper has been written as my short description concerning GPM, the Protestant Church in the Moluccas, to be presented at the GETI forum which will be held along with the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Seoul-Busan, South Korea this coming October. In this writing, the main focus will be
on describing of the Protestant Church in the Moluccas (Gereja Protestan Maluku) and its major contextual issue related to
main theme of the 10thAssembly, “God of Life, Lead us to Justice and
Peace”.
a.
The
Protestant Church in the Moluccas
The Protestant Church
in the Moluccas or GerejaProtestan Maluku
(abbreviated GPM) is the regional church (not ethnical) in Maluku Provinceand
in some parts of North Maluku Province; those are located in eastern part of
Indonesia. Both provinces consist of a thousand islands, so that GPM can be identified
as an archipelago church. In term of geographic, the congregations of GPM can
be in urban, suburbs, and rural areas – most of them are rural. Those are
located in Sula Islands, Bacan, Obi, Ceram Island, Buru, Ambon, Lease (Saparua,
Nusa Laut, and Haruku), Kei Islands, Tanimbar, Leti Moa Lakor, Babar, Aru,
Kisar, Wetar and many other small islands.[1]Every
region or island has its own different ethnic or sub-ethnic, language, and
culture (Maluku has almost 150 sub-ethnics and languages). So that cultural
diversity becomes one of our contexts.
As the largest church
in the province, GPM has approximately 754 local congregations, 524.403
members, and 1.012 pastors[2]
(almost 80% of Christian populations are GPM members). Beside GPM there are
also some other denominations in the area, such as Roman Catholic,
Pentecostalism, Advent, and the Salvation Army. The intra-religious relation
between GPM and them is going well and my church has been actively working to
promote an ecumenical awareness either through its teachings, faith confession,
and other documents or through real participation and mutual cooperation on
institutional or grassroots level. However, I do not herewith intend to say
that there has not been any tension among them all this time. In local
congregational level, it is not rare to find tension related to one’s membership
on whether she/he is administratively belonging to GPM or other denominations,
but as far as I know, this does not bring about tension on the synod or institutional level.
Historically, GPM was
officially formed on September 6th, 1935, after being an independent church. Nevertheless,
Christianity in Maluku has
existed before 1935. It (especially Protestantism) was introduced in that area
in 16th century through the coming of VOC, the Dutch East India
Company. Some historians agree that Maluku was the first place of western
evangelization or Christianization in Indonesia before the Gospel reached other
places. Therefore, GPM is enlisted as one of the older churches in our country.
Before it became an official organization, there had been only one local
congregation in Maluku and it was under GerejaProtestan
di Indonesia (the Protestant Church in Indonesia). This congregation was
calledas “Ambon Resort”. The establishment of the Church could not be separated
from the governmental
regulation – Koninklijk Besluit (1840), that was a formal law
signed by the King (at that time, Indonesia in general was under Dutch
colonialization, consequently the church was required to obey governmental regulations).
This regulation required the church, particularly GPI
member churches to organize and form their organizations as independent
churches.[3]
Based on its name, we
know that GPM belongs to the type of Protestantism. In term of denomination,
GPM inherits Calvinistic tradition, so it becomes one of the reformed churches
in the country. This church is a member of WCRC (the World Communion of
Reformed Churches), CCA (the Christian Conference of Asia), and CCI (the
Communion of Churches in Indonesia). GPM practices an ecclesiastical system
named Presbiterial Sinodal (synodal
Presbyterian?), that is a system in which local congregation becomes the focus
of the church’sministries. There are three organizational levels in the body of
GPM; “local congregation” – “regional/classis” – “synod”. This can be simply
seen hierarchically where thereisSynod at the top level, and then followed by classis
or regional committee at the middle level, and local congregation at last. But,
in accordance with such system, each organization is not in unequal position
and plays an important role in every process of making decision. In some cases,
however, we need to openly say that the principle of that system is not fully implemented
yet as we expect.
In the history of GPM,
one of the crucial-ecumenical problems faced by my church was dealing with conflict
and violence between the followers of Islam and Christianity, irrespective of their
age, gender, and ethnic. I do not intend to say that it was simply religious conflict,
even though it was quite clear to see that there was the usage of religious
ornaments or symbols during the conflict, praying for combatants, blessing them
before going to battle, preaching on biblical texts which seemed to legitimate
anarchism, religious greetings like “syalom” (peace greeting) was used to
symbolize Christian’s spirit to defense their faith through fighting against
enemy, and for Moslem, term of ““Allāhu
Akbar” (the great God) was yelled to organize their group which then identified
as laskar Jihad. My option to not
directly call it as “religious conflict” is grounded on my reading to some
current researches showing that tragedy of Maluku was complicated including
ethnical, economical, and political issues.[4] This
can be analyzed by considering Indonesian political and economic context after
the fall of Soeharto’s regime in 1998 that had ruled the nation for more than
31 years. Another argument is related to hegemonic struggle between the elite Malukan-Christian
with Malukan and non-Malukan Muslim to dominate the local political and
economic spheres.[5]
So that in describing this context I will call it as “a religiously social
conflict”.
In 1999, this conflict broke
out for the first time and increasingly spread out over the entire Maluku. According
to Lambang Trijono, there were three episodes of conflict based on its
emergence, escalation, outbreak of conflict, and de-escalation; the first was
begun in January until April 1999, the second was in July-December 2000, and
the third was in April 2000-2001[6],
but I think that there were two other episodes happened in February2002 and April
2004 (one last episode happened in 2011, but it is not enlisted here because it
only included two small groups in Ambon and its effects were not too broad as
previous ones). As I have mentioned earlier, the riot not only occurred in
Ambon, where the central office of GPM is located, but also in other islands –
Central and South East Maluku, Lease, Ceram, Buru, etc. – where most of GPM’s
congregations live in.
During the conflict,
human life was meaningless if someone whose life was in different religious
line. So that killing people (almost 9.000 people died on both sides), burning
houses and public facilities, and explosions of the bomb were people’s daily
realities for approximately five years. As a part of society, I also experienced
that situation(second episode) when I had to see my house collapsed; my neighbors
and some extended family killed with very tragic ways, and lived in a refuge
for almost three years. By living under refuge, we lacked access of good
education, good health, good security, unemployment, and many things threatening
our life. Conflict and violence left nothing to us other than traumatic
experiences for orphans, widows, and all the victims. Who should be responsible
for this is another question I do not want to elaborate here, but by observing
people’s involvement
in it, we can simply say that we were all included in it.
Other impact of the conflict
has also beenreligious
segregation by which communities are now divided according to their religious
identity – Christian and Moslem. This is another issue I am going to highlight
in detail in the next part of this paper as one of our major ecumenical issues,
along with how GPM’s position to strengthen the process of gaining peace.
Although, this paper
will highlight only one major ecumenical issue of the church, I think that it
is better to touch briefly on the other comprehensive problems of the church.
Beside the issue of social segregation, my church is also faced by;(1) Poverty
(in 2011, Maluku was the third poorest province in Indonesia with 23% of the
population are poor)[7],
(2) Gender inequality (especially within the church itself, wherein leadership
are dominated by man), (3) Ecological crises (garbage, deforestation and
erosion with their impacts – flood, landslide, etc.), (4) HIV/AIDS and Drugs,
(5) Human rights, and (6) Internally Displaced People after Conflict.[8]
b.
Major
Issue: “Strengthening the Process of Peace Building and Religiously Social
Segregation as Threat in Maluku Province”
The religiously social
conflict is now over already and the situation in Ambon back to normal as
before 1999. It began in 2005 after the reconciliation between both communities
mediated by the government, religious institutions, non-governmental
organizations, and even by many small groups of civil society. However, it does
not mean that there is not potency for a new conflict in the years to come.
Why? Conflict has brought about a permanent impact for the entire Malukan
community by which people will still bring their collective memory that they
have fought each other when they see that they are living within a divided
community. The divided community is my core issue to talk about social
segregation according to religious identity.
During and after
conflict, people have been living in any region where theirgroup exists. For instance,
some places in Ambon such as Batu Meja, Kudamati, Batu Gajah, Passo, western and
southern parts of Ambonare the bases for Christians, in this case GPM’s
congregations. As well as Batu Merah, Pohon Pule, Waihaong, some parts of
eastern and northern Ambon are dominated by Muslims. The situation was not as
such before Maluku had entered its darkest times, for both lived together in
their ancestral land as orang sodara(brothers
and sisters).This reality makes people lack access of intensive communication
each other, but restricted it only to official places such as offices, schools,
hospitals, and public transportations. There is no longer Christian neighbor
for any Moslem family where they can share and talk each other, and vice versa. It then creates border among
them by which recovery process can be ineffective. This cannot also provide any
space for people to be closer one another in order to rebuild their
understanding and mutual trusts on the grassroots level.
I do not see this
reality as simple as it. In my opinion, religious segregation geographically or
demographically has led people to “segregation by point of view” at once. This
kind of segregation brings out a tendency to dichotomize everything according
to religious line. In this context, such segregation is more than a physical
problem, it is something that will influence the way people think about and act
toward their neighbor because their mind hasalso been segregated. One of GPM’s ministers
whom also a peace activist, Jacky Manuputty, identifies this as “individual mentality
segregation”. He says, “Communities are not only segregated by their abodes,
but also by their individual mentalities”.[9]
Segregation by religious
identity (and by mind) gives another possibility for a new conflict if it is
not responded, managed, and controlled well and continuously by all stakeholders
– particularly the government, religious institutions, and social organizations.
The latest case in September 2011 – riot in Batu Gantung (Christian) & Pohon
Pule (Moslem), has shown our failure to anticipate conflict through managing
both groups that were easily provoked by issues of any irresponsible people who
wanted to take an advantage of the chaos. What I mean is that, when people
abide together in their own group, it is easy for them to be influenced collectively,
either for positive or negative purposes.
It is not easy,
however, to change the condition, but I think that the idea is not merely about
how to relocate them to
their previous regions, but also how to break the chain of the segregation of
mind that emerges from the physically segregation.Thatsegregation has also been influenced by traumatic
experiences. If it is not taken seriously, it can threat the recovery process
and “our journey to just
peace”is actually at
stake.
This is a crucial
problem faced by churches in Maluku, especially by GPM. As an integral part of
the adherents, we could not escape of the situation and being apathetic
concerning what has been gone through by people. We are continuously striving for strengthening the
process of gaining peace, either through visions and the real efforts along
with the other
groups. This is based on the awareness that GPM is not merely a church “in”
Maluku, but more than that a church “of” and “for” many Malukan-Christians.[10]
In addition, during the conflict we were working on preventing conflict and
building peace as well. For instance, right after the first conflict broke out
in 1999, GPM institutionally along with MUI Maluku (the Indonesian Ulama
Council) held a meeting and it resulted a common agreement that that conflict
was not religious and either Christians or Moslem were withdrawn to be in
control and not provoked by issues, even though it was not successful enough to
deescalate conflict at that time. At the second stage, GPM had also established
a lawyer club (advocacy team) aimed at investigation of the conflict. The
church also founded “GPM Crisis Center” (it was initially organized by UKIM)
and the Maluku Interfaith Institution for Humanity (LAIM). The former was
responsible for documentaries and analytical purposes of the riot, and the
later for peace building programs through dialogue (it is an interreligious
institution owned to GPM, MUI, and Roman Catholic Church and still exists now).[11]
Both organizations were often threatened, accused, and terrorized, but “there
is no point of return, for we cannot imagine how our people and our families
would suffer if the conflict was still escalating. At every meeting, we
repeatedly convinced ourselves that nobody should take our right to live in
peace for their own advantage”, one of the members said.
In order to minimize
the increasing number of the segregation by location, GPM has concerned enough
on the problems of internally displaced people (IDP), those who fled to another
safe place and still living there up to now. The church took initiative to
coordinate with the local government to return them to their previous regions,
especially the displaced congregations (44 displaced congregations left).GPM
has also disagreed with the government’s plan and policy to relocate the IDP to
a new place where it is the basis for their group, i.e. any Christian IDP group
into other Christian community, vice
versa.
In term of segregation
by mind, the church is actively striving for transforming their concept of
being church or being Christian in a multi religious context. At the 36th
Assembly of GPM (2010), the chairman of GPM stated that the theme for the next
five coming years would give an emphasis on religious pluralism as the most important
issue in the recovery process.[12]It
is then mediated through the sermons that promote peace and justice and many other programs as the ways to heal people from tragic experiences. It does
not mean, however, that transforming theological paradigm has just been begun
in 2010, but since conflict period itself. Through this GPM expects that
segregation by mind could be broken off. Another attempt carried out by the church dealt with the objection of
rebuilding trust among religious leaders. It was implemented through “live in
program”, where many GPM’s ministers
could live together with Moslem families for a couple days.
There are some other
programs initiated by the church to strengthen the ongoing process of building
peace. They are related to educational, cultural, and artistic approaches. The church has actually tried to take those
ways, but I think that they
should give more concerns on them either in different or same methods. (1) Peace Education. According to the document
of International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, Declaration on Just Peace, one of the effective ways in seeking and
pursuing just peace is peace education.[13]
In my church, this idea has been implemented in several ways such as the
curriculum of SekolahMinggu (Childreen
Sunday School) and Catechism as formal educations of the church, weekly
sermons, and seminars on peace and religious pluralism. Actually, GPM through
its theological institution (UKIM) has also developed “the Center for Peace
Studies” which is expected to
conduct researches on interreligious relation and peace in Maluku, but unfortunately to say, it does not function yet.
Nevertheless, I think that it is better if we take a forward step, for instance,
developing a new faculty or
department at least in peace studies, where people can study on that issue
intensively in a more academic way. It could be more effective not only because
the visions of peace could be transferred in that way, but also those who study
it are those who will be the future religious leaders with abilities to influence the
society. Moreover, the church can take initiative to suggest the government to specifically
develop a more contextual curriculum covering
peace and pluralism issues
and having applied to all levels of education. (2) Local Wisdom or Culture as the means to transfer the Spirit of Peace.
In a long period after the western colonialization, churches had preserved the
belief that local wisdom was blasphemous and Christians had to get rid of it. But
in 1960 the church confessed and accepted itas the part of its journey in
that cultural society, even it has been seen as the source of doing theology
(contextual theology). In Malukan post-conflict era, GPM promotes and supportes
culture as the way to gain peace. Malukan people have a few cultural practices which can reunify
them regardless of their location and
religion, such as Pela gandong.
“Pela Gandong” is a siblinghood allience between two or three villages in
Central Maluku. This culture has bound them since their ancestors
lived. Usually, those who are bound in it come from
different faith traditions and they have to be responsible for each other. Unfortunately,
Pela involves only for certain villages
and its affects are commonly adressed to such communities only. Hoewever, I
think that its values and spirit of brotherhood can be transferred as wide as
possible to entire community.Other local wisdoms are ain-ni-ain, kakawait, larvul-ngabal, kidabela, etc. These local
wisdoms are expected to be able to break off the segregation by mind. (3)
Building Peace through Art. The soul
of the Malukan people is the soul of art. The city of Ambon is well known as
the city of music or art. This is reason why Ambonese people are called as Manise and the city as Ambon Manise (‘Manise’ means sweet) –
they are sweet because of their melodious voices and artful creativities.The art or music can be another way to
provoke and speak more of peace to people. I think that this has also been
concerned by GPM, but unfortunately we need to elaborate it more in a
systemized and continued ways.
To
conclude, I
will say once again that my church, the Protestant Church in the Moluccas, will never stop to
struggle for the recovery process in Maluku, but in its journey to rebuild
peace, GPM is in collaboration with many groups which have a common vision. In
that journey, we are all awaring that “the segregation by location and mind”
can be a threat for our paths toward just peace. Nevertheless, we still believe in
the Real, the Father of
Justice,
that there will be just peace in time and it has started
from now.
“God
of Life, lead us to Justice and Peace”.
September 6th, 2013
"Dirgahayu (Long Live!) yang ke-78"
“I
(Paul) planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the growth”
(1Corinthians
3.6)
[1]Majelis
Pekerja Harian Sinode GPM, Dokumen Pola
Induk Pelayanan, in Salinan Ketetapan-Ketetapan Hasil
Persidangan XXXIO Sinode Gereja Protestan Maluku, Ambon, 2010, p. 259.
[2]Majelis
Pekerja Harian Sinode GPM, Dokumen Pola
Induk Pelayanan, in Salinan Ketetapan-Ketetapan Hasil
Persidangan XXXIO Sinode Gereja Protestan Maluku, p. 259
[3]Tapilatu, Mesakh,
Sejarah Gereja Protestan di Maluku
(The History of the Protestant Church in the Moluccas), Ambon, 2004, p. 4
[4]Lambang
Trijono, Keluar dari Kemelut Maluku
(Escape from Malukan Crisis), (Yogyakarta: Pusataka Pelajar, 2001), pp. 95-103.
[5]See
Gerry van Klinken, Perang Kota Kecil
(War of the Small Town), (Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia, 2007), pp. 147-178.
[6]Lambang
Trijono, Keluar dari Kemelut Maluku
(Escape from Malukan Crisis), pp. 33-46.
[7]“The
Number and Precentage of the Poor in Indonesia” downloaded fromhttp://www.bps.go.id/tab_sub/view.php?tabel=1&daftar=1&id_subyek=23¬ab=1
[8]Majelis
Pekerja Harian Sinode GPM, Dokumen Pola
Induk Pelayanan, in Salinan Ketetapan-Ketetapan Hasil
Persidangan XXXIO Sinode Gereja Protestan Maluku, pp. 262-271.
[9]Jacky
Manuputty, The Maluku Conflict and the Process of Gaining Peace, this article was presented at
EUKUMINDO Forum in the Netherland, p.2.
[10]By saying Malukan-Christians I do
not intend to give restriction only for
those who are ethnically Malukan, but including people from other ethnic groups
who belong to GPM.
[11] This information is based on my
interview with one of GPM’s ministers, Rev. Steve Gaspersz, who was actively
taking part at both organizations during the conflict.
[12]The
Speech by the GPM’s Chairman at the 36th GPM Assembly in Majelis Pekerja Harian
Sinode GPM, Dokumen Pola Induk Pelayanan,
in Salinan
Ketetapan-Ketetapan Hasil Persidangan XXXIO Sinode Gereja Protestan Maluku,
Ambon, 2010. P. 259.
[13]World
Council of Churches, Declaration on Just Peace, 2011, p. 28.
A well-written article, I am looking forward to read another ones in the future. Good luck with your studies.
BalasHapus