16.03.2007

New kind of partnership for churches in Indonesia and Australia

A new level of relationships between congregations in Indonesia and Australia is likely to come out of a partnership signed in September 2006 between the Indonesian Christian Church and the Uniting Church in Australia.

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	Indonesian Christian Church moderator Semuel Purdwadisastra, left, and Uniting Church in Australia president Gregor Henderson celebrate the new partnership.

In another sign that churches have moved a long way from the old style “foreign mission,” the agreement could lead the two churches into cooperation in urban mission, trading their skills and sharing personnel in some strategic areas.

“We are embarking on a new kind of partnership,” said Uniting Church in Australia president Gregor Henderson, as he signed the agreement with Semuel Purwadisastra, the moderator of the Indonesian Christian Church.

“Our present partnerships in Indonesia focus on the more remote eastern region. However, this new partnership opens new opportunities for the Uniting Church in Australia to work closely with the church serving a predominantly urban community on the populated island of Java.”

John Barr of Uniting International Mission said the partnership with the well funded Indonesian Christian Church would focus on the two churches’ common concerns, rather than help from Australia, to develop leadership and resources.

“The Indonesian Christian Church ministry takes place in a rapidly developing context where globalization, pluralism, environmental degradation, urban poverty, unemployment, impact of drugs, etc., are major issues. Hence the Indonesian Christian Church and the Uniting Church in Australia share certain common interests,” he said.

The Indonesian partner has slightly more than 200,000 members. It describes itself as being multi-ethnic, of Reformed heritage, with a high social concern and a deep investment in Christian education and schools.

The church operates 125 schools with approximately 40,000 students, two university campuses, a media ministry, publishing, orphanages, housing for the elderly, drug rehabilitation and an emergency humanitarian relief agency.

The Indonesian Christian Church has the two highest ranking schools in Indonesia and its university, Krida Wacana Christian University (which works in partnership with Curtin University in Perth, Australia) has a medical faculty with international students.

The church comes out of a tradition of autonomous Chinese congregations located across Java. These congregations formed three separate synods (East Java, Central Java and West Java). Since 1962 these synods have been working on a process of union to become one body.

The Uniting Church in Australia is the third largest Christian denomination in Australia with approximately 2,800 congregations, 51 Presbyteries and seven synods. The church has 300,000 members though 1.3 million Australians claim an association.

The church has 48 schools, ranging from long established ones with large enrolments to small recently established low fee schools. More than 20,000 people are employed by the church in community service work among the aged, the young, the sick and the homeless.

The Uniting Church in Australia was formed on 22 June 1977 as a union of three churches: the Congregational Union of Australia, the Methodist Church of Australasia and the Presbyterian Church of Australia.

The new partnership between the Indonesian and Australian denominations follows from a Perth-Jakarta initiative four years ago when the Uniting Church in Australia’s West Australia Synod and the Indonesian Christian Church’s West Java Synod signed a memorandum of understanding.

That initiative was integral to the development of an Indonesian congregation in Perth that is part of the Australian church. Barr noted that relationships had begun years before when some pastors from the Indonesian church visited churches in the Victoria and Tasmania region of Australia.

“Indonesia continues to be an important focus. Building positive relationships, raising awareness and sharing in ministry with Indonesian partner churches is a definite priority for the Uniting Church in Australia.”

Crosslight/Staff