The Christian Church of Southern Sumatra is a Protestant church in Indonesia, based on the southern part of the island of Sumatra, the Provinces of Lampung, Jambi, South Sumatra, and Bengkulu. The synod office is located in Lampung. The denomination was officially founded on 6 August 1987. It has 30,000–35,000 members, 65 parishes, 40 house fellowships and 13 Classis. The church reported steady growth. The church connected and established formal link to the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. [1] [2] [3]
The church has long history since the migrating of millions of Javanese to the island of Sumatra. The Christian Church of Central Java began mission work among these Javanese population in Sumatra. In 1952, five congregations formed a classis and joined the Javanese Christian Church. In the 1950s the Reformed Church in the Netherlands took over this work. Two Dutch missionaries worked in the field. In 1987 the church became independent. The church publishes a newspaper. [1] It belongs to the World Communion of Reformed Churches. [4]
The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 82,865 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church.
South Sumatra is a province of Indonesia, located in the southeast of the island of Sumatra. The capital and largest city of the province is the city of Palembang. The province borders the provinces of Jambi to the north, Bengkulu to the west and Lampung to the south, as well a maritime border with the Bangka Belitung Islands to the east. It is the largest province in the island of Sumatra, and it is slightly smaller than Portugal, the department of Boquerón in Paraguay or the U.S. state of Maine. The Bangka Strait in the east separates South Sumatra and the island of Bangka, which is part of the Bangka Belitung Islands province. The province has an area of 91,592.43 km2 (35,364 sq mi) and had a population of 8,467,432 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mid-2023 was 8,743,522. The province is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum, natural gas and coal. The province is inhabited by many different Malay sub ethnic groups, with Palembangese being largest ethnic group. Most speak the Palembang language, which is mutually intelligible to both Indonesian and local Palembang Malay. Other ethnic groups include the Javanese, Sundanese, Minangkabau and Chinese. Most are concentrated in urban areas and are largely immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.
Lampung, officially the Province of Lampung, is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a short border with the province of Bengkulu to the northwest, and a longer border with the province of South Sumatra to the north, as well as a maritime border with the provinces of Banten and Jakarta to the east. It is the home of the Lampung people, who speak their own language and possess their own written script. Its capital city is Bandar Lampung.
The transmigration program was an initiative of the Dutch colonial government and later continued by the Indonesian government to move landless people from densely populated areas of Indonesia to less populous areas of the country. This involved moving people permanently from the island of Java, but also to a lesser extent from Bali and Madura to less densely populated areas including Kalimantan, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua. The program is currently coordinated by Ministry of Transmigration.
The Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) is a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. The present RCUS is a conservative, Reformed denomination. It affirms the principles of the Reformation: Sola scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola gratia, Sola fide, and Soli Deo gloria. The RCUS has membership concentrated in the Midwest and California.
The Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) was an international organization of Calvinist churches. It had 39 member denominations from 25 countries in its membership, and those churches have about 12 million people together. It was founded August 14, 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan as the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. The Reformed Ecumenical Council was the second largest international Calvinist alliance and the more conservative of the two largest. In 1953, The Reformed Ecumenical Synod meeting in Edinburgh decided to advise its member churches not to join the World Council of Churches as currently constituted because it “permits essentially different interpretations of its doctrinal basis, and thus the nature of the Christian faith” and “represents itself as a Community of faith, but is actually not this” due to member churches holding “basically divergent positions.”
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) was a fellowship of more than 200 churches with roots in the 16th century Reformation, and particularly in the theology of John Calvin. Its headquarters was in Geneva, Switzerland. They merged with the Reformed Ecumenical Council in 2010 to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
The Protestant Reformed Churches in America is a Protestant denomination of 33 churches and over 8,000 members.
The Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands is a Protestant church in the Netherlands.
Javanese Mennonite Church is one of three Mennonite-related church synods in Indonesia
Several different religions are practised in Indonesia. Indonesia is officially a presidential republic and a unitary state without an established state religion. The first principle of Indonesia's philosophical foundation, Pancasila, requires its citizens to state the belief in "the one and almighty God". Although, as explained by the Constitutional Court, this first sila of Pancasila is an explicit recognition of divine substances and meant as a principle on how to live together in a religiously diverse society. Blasphemy is a punishable offence and the Indonesian government has a discriminatory attitude towards its numerous tribal religions, atheist and agnostic citizens. In addition, the Aceh province officially applies Sharia law and is notorious for its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities.
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Protestantism is one of the six approved religions in Indonesia, the others being Islam, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. It constitutes the bulk of Christianity in Indonesia, which is the second largest religion in the country after Islam.
The Restored Reformed Church is a Calvinist denomination in the Netherlands. It was founded in 2004, from congregations which made up the orthodox-reformed wing of the Dutch Reformed Church; they had previously been part of groups named Het Gekrookte Riet and the still existing Gereformeerde Bond within the Dutch Reformed Church. The Church has grown steadily since its founding.
The Gereja Batak Karo Protestan or Karo Batak Protestant Church is the largest church among the largely Christian Karo people of North Sumatra, Indonesia. It was established formally in 1941.
The Protestant Church in Indonesia is a Reformed church; it is a member of World Communion of Reformed Churches.
The Toraja Mamasa Church was established on 7 June 1947, and based in West Sulawesi. It is a Protestant church, and a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. It was a fruit of the Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, a conservative Reformed denomination. Evangelism was started in 1931. These churches were grouped together in 1948 to form an independent denomination. This is the largest church in the Mamasa Valley.
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