Gereja Injili di Tanah Jawa, Indonesia

Origins and Anabaptist Practices

GITJ is by far the oldest Mennonite church outside Europe and North America, as what would become its first congregation was founded in 1854 by the first mission efforts of the Dutch Mennonite church (Yoder). Pieter Jansz was the first missionary to be sent out by the Dutch Mennonite Mission Society, and he and his family arrived in Java in 1851. Jansz worked as a teacher for several years, slowly building a congregation after the first baptisms of 1854. Jansz baptized and taught despite the strong influences of Islam and an indigenous Christian movement (Hoekema 30). In these early years, Jansz prepared Javanese Christians for evangelization and taught at a school for Javanese children, Jansz developing a network that would eventually see expansion into GITJ (Hoekema 31). Jansz himself was not “a real Anabaptist theologian,” – he was not a pacifist, and did not speak strongly on the oath – but adult baptism stood out as the most significant difference between his mission work and that of other missionaries (Hoekema 44). Russian Mennonite missionaries joined in the mission in the 1880s, followed by German Mennonites in the 1920s and Swiss Mennonites in the 1930s (Yoder). With the help of Russian Mennonite missionaries, Jansz and his son later worked toward establishing Mennonite “colonies,” like Margorejo in the Muria area of central Java, with the goal of improving the social standing of the Javanese (Hoekema 93). The official establishment of the GITJ occurred on May 30, 1940, as World War II began initiating independence movements among these churches.

Theological Connections

The practice of baptism upon confession of faith is explicitly stated in the church’s constitution, and pacifism was also stated in the conference constitution that established the church in 1940. However, after a church conflict over whether members could be involved in resistance to Dutch colonialism, some young men were allowed to participate in violent resistance. Hoekema notes that in ecumenical arguments, the “principle of defenselessness…does not appear anywhere…it was not prominently present among Mennonites themselves in the nineteenth century, nor was it truly a sign of identity in the first decades of the twentieth century” (141). More recently, some members still serve in the military, but peacebuilding and witness are an important part of the GITJ seminary’s curriculum, and “after 1955 the GITJ…worked hard at lay training, and the matter of a specifically Anabaptist identity received more emphasis” (108).

Ties to Larger Church

As a former mission church, GITJ has historical ties to the Dutch Mennonite church, but since 1949 several hundred American and Canadian Mennonites have worked with these churches. In that time period, several Dutch, Swiss, American and Canadian Mennonite theologians have also taught at an early pastor training institution and the church’s college level seminary, the Akademi Kristen Wiyata Wacana, or Christian Academy for Disciples of the Word, which was established in 1965 in Pati (Yoder).

One of the church’s means of maintaining Anabaptist traditions is this Akademi Kristen Wiyata Wacana. It has employed professors from the Holland, Switzerland, Canada and the US in order to emphasize “Anabaptist distinctives,” has a library of Anabaptist materials, and also functions as a study center (Yoder).

The church has also sent many youth abroad to US and Canadian Mennonite communities to serve and study since the late 1960s, as part of MCC’s International Exchange Visitor Program. Many youth from North America and other global Mennonite churches have also spent year long terms in GITJ churches sharing and serving (Yoder).

Challenges

As a Christian church within an overwhelmingly Islamic Indonesia, one of GITJ’s major challenges is the pressure that’s being placed on many Christian communities by the Islamic majority. Lawrence Yoder suggests that the church’s real challenge is “to engage these Muslims in a creative and peaceable way, building open relationships.” With a history of conflict with Islam in the country, and a continuing pattern of strained relationships, maintaining a truly Anabaptist relationship with such a dominant religious and social force is difficult. Another issue the GITJ faces is the erasure of any sense of a strong Anabaptist identity, caused by the fact that ministerial students are being educated in ecumenical universities and seminaries. This ecumenical training is making it difficult for church leaders to get a strong grasp on a uniquely Anabaptist vision within Indonesia, and preventing an Anabaptist approach to relationships with and mission work among Muslims (Yoder). It has been difficult to translate Anabaptism into a “totally different cultural, religious and political context,” according to Hoekema, and this difficulty is reflected in a sometimes weakened idea of Anabaptist principles (114). Issues like pacifism, for example, have historically been challenged, and today the church allows some members to participate in the military. Church unity and structure is also a question, considering the church’s split boards from 1996 to 2000.

Looking to the Future

As Hoekema notes, “From the sixties on, congregations began to grow fast as a result of active evangelism and also as a result of insecure social and political circumstances in the country,” a theme picked up on as being hugely important by Lawrence Yoder. Yoder points out the church’s enormous growth over the last sixty years, from 2000 members to over forty thousand and about six congregations to about 100, and suggests that this pattern of growth is what will define the church’s future. In the near future, this pattern will probably continue, despite pressure from an Islamic society, and in the distant future the church will probably either expand at a slower rate or begin to decline in the face of Islam. Another important question going into the future is the church’s relationship with other Christian churches in the area. The Muria Chinese Church is separate Mennonite conference that grew as a result of “spontaneous combustion” due to the failure of Mennonite missions to relate to Chinese Indonesians in Muria (Yoder 366). Attempts to merge these churches have been made, as they have “basically the same theological convictions,” but “remain sharply distinct and organizationally separate” (367). Also significant is the GITJ’s history of ecumenical interactions, connections that have endangered Anabaptist convictions but which have led to frequent collaboration and discussion with other evangelical churches. Mergers and relationships could damage the church’s “Anabaptist” features, but they could also provide a source of new life and strength.

Significant Leaders

Pudjo Kartiko – chair of the synod

Timotius Katrisno – second chair of the synod

Zefanya Adi Walujo – according to Lawrence Yoder, is the “younger and quite energetic” executive secretary of the synod, who is “a courageous young leader.” Adi was pastor at a congregation which was forbidden for years to meet in its church building due to Muslim activism in the area. Adi led worship in front of the building every week, and worked with local leaders until the congregation was permitted to reenter the church building.

Timeline

1851 – Pieter Jansz arrives in Indonesia to begin first Mennonite mission work with the Dutch Mennonite Mission Society. He establishes himself at Jepara and opens a school for Javanese children (Shenk)

March 16, 1854 – First native Javanese are baptized as Christians by Jansz, signifying the establishment of the first congregation and thus the beginnings of the GITJ (Shenk)

1890 – Colony established at Margorejo, which would serve as center of Muria Mennonite mission for 50 years. Jansz hoped to develop social opportunities for the Javanese by creating economically successful Mennonite communities, with the belief that improving social standing was part of evangelism.

May 30, 1940 – Independence movements are sweeping the churches in response to the approach of World War II, and in response the independent Muria Christian Church is formed at Kelet on this date. Only one Javanese minister had been ordained, and the rest of the administration and preaching was managed by either missionaries or lay-preachers (Shenk).

March 1942 – Japanese invasion of Java causes a Muslim uprising, which destroys the church building at Margorejo and puts pressure on the young church. Several church leaders are martyred and pressure is placed on many members to renounce their faith. These hardships are reflected in a drop in membership from 4,409 in 1940 to 2,400 in 1949 (Yoder).

September 1965 – Akademi Kristen Wiyata Wacana is established in Pati. This school would serve as a significant source of Anabaptist teachings, as well as a means of connecting with the larger church by the bringing in of professors from North America and Europe. Choice to establish the school in Java was made based on the Mennonite roots in Muria and a growing European Mennos, MWC

1996 – The church splits into two rival general boards after younger members hold their own general assembly to address concerns with the established synod leadership. No synod assembly had occurred since 1989, and it’s this failure in organization that causes the youth to organize a separate board. For four years these two boards compete for authority within the church.

2000 – The two boards are reconciled and reconvene into one, after a reconciliation process. New leadership is chosen through a revamped selection process.