http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/hkbp-back-at-sealed-church-in-bekasi-while-yasmin-congregation-gets-barred/397019
HKBP Back at Sealed Church in Bekasi While Yasmin Congregation Gets Barred Arientha Primanita & Candra Malik | September 19, 2010 Police and security officers stand guard outside the HKBP's boarded-up church in Bekasi on Sunday. Dozens of members held prayers inside the closed church. (Antara Photo/Yudhi Mahatma) There was no singing at the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) of Pondok Timur Indah in Bekasi on Sunday. The service was held by the congregation at its shuttered church in the Pondok Timur Indah residential complex, marked by a red sign declaring it had been sealed off by the authorities. As if that wasn't conspicuous enough, hundreds of Bekasi Police and Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officers surrounded the church to protect it. The church's closure on June 20 has spurred nationwide debate over religious freedom. The congregation has since been forced to hold its services in a vacant lot in Ciketing, Bekasi. The congregation chose not to hold Sunday's service in Ciketing, which had a heavy police presence, or at a building in Bekasi provided by the administration. The church had initially vowed to hold the service at Ciketing, despite Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad's decision to ban the congregation from worshiping at the vacant lot. "There were [police] officers swarming all over the Ciketing plot, so we held services [at the church]," Saor Siagian, the legal counsel for the congregation, said on Sunday. "We're not certain what to do with the offer made to us by the Bekasi administration." Saor was referring to Bekasi's offer to give the congregation its choice of two plots of land on which to build a new church. The decision comes on the heels of the Sept. 12 attack in which church elder Asia Sihombing was stabbed and Rev. Luspida Simandjuntak was beaten with a stick while walking to the Ciketing lot for a service. "We'll talk with Rev. Luspida and the other [church elders] about both options," Saor said. He added that Rev. Bonar Napitupulu, the HKBP church's nationwide leader, would meet with Bekasi officials to discuss the options given to them. Both Bonar and the secretary general of the HKBP Church, Rev. Ramlan Hutahaean, attended Sunday's service. "We must fight together for the right to worship and build a house of worship," Ramlan said. Bekasi spokesman Endang Suharyadi was present outside the shuttered church on Sunday, saying, "this building is actually sealed off. We want them to abide by the law." Elsewhere, the congregation of the GKI Yasmin church in Bogor, West Java, had its church sealed off by Satpol PP on Saturday night. Church member Bona Sigalingging said the members had actually waited at the church until late Saturday night in anticipation of the closure. "And sure enough, the public order officers came at 9 p.m. to seal off our church," he said. The church was first closed in March after Islamic hard-liners objected to it being built there. It was unsealed on Aug. 27, only to be sealed off again a day later. Bona said that on Sept. 5, church members unsealed the church themselves. "The administrative courts have determined our permit is legal," he said. The congregation has been forced to hold its services across the road from the under-construction church since March. The congregation, which has more than 300 members, has been struggling against the local administration for nine years for permission to build its church. It has taken the case to the State Administrative Court in both Jakarta and Bandung, and received rulings in its favor on both occasions. On Sunday, Allisa Wahid, daughter of the late former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, echoed calls for the revision of a controversial decree obliging congregations to get approval from residents before building a house of worship. "The decree must be revised," she said, adding President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had lately been insensitive to the issue. "What has he done to reduce religious conflict in his own country?" she added. "He could simply clamp down on violators and attackers of religious harmony, on the basis of our Constitution, which guarantees our religious freedom. "He must say it out loud, the way a president should! Today, Christians are being repressed. Tomorrow [the rights of] believers of another [religion or sect] will be defeated in the interests of a handful of groups." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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