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 194,064 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church.
Bengkulu is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the former Bengkulu Residency area from the province of South Sumatra under Law No. 9 of 1967 and was finalised by Government Regulation No. 20 of 1968. Spread over 19,813 km2, it is bordered by the provinces of West Sumatra to the north, Jambi to the northeast, Lampung to the southeast, and South Sumatra to the east, and by the Indian Ocean to the northwest, south, southwest, and west.
The Dutch Reformed Church was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation until 1930. It was the foremost Protestant denomination, and—since 1892—one of the two major Reformed denominations along with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.
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 Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration.
The Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) is a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. The present RCUS is a conservative, Calvinist 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 South Dakota, Colorado, 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 Reformed 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.” About two-thirds of REC member churches also belonged to the larger World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). The seat of the Reformed Ecumenical Council was Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States.
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 are now merged into 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 Catholic Church in Indonesia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome. Catholicism is one of the six approved religions in Indonesia, the others being Islam, Protestantism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. According to official figures, Catholics made up 3.12 percent of the population in 2018. The number of Catholics is, therefore, more than 8.3 million. Indonesia is primarily Muslim, but Catholicism is the dominant faith in certain areas of the country.
Javanese Mennonite Church Indonesian injili di Tanah Jawa is one of three Mennonite-related church synods in Indonesia
Indonesia is officially a republic with a compromise made between the ideas of a secular state and an Islamic state. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population and the first principle of Indonesia's philosophical foundation, Pancasila requires its citizens to "believe in the one and only God". Consequently, atheists in Indonesia experience official discrimination in the context of registration of births and marriages and the issuance of identity cards. In addition, Aceh officially enforces Sharia law and is notorious for its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities. There are also pro-Sharia movements in other parts of the country with overwhelming Muslim majorities.
The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Reformed churches in the world. It has 233 member denominations in 110 countries, together claiming 100 million people, thus being the third largest Christian communion in the world after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This ecumenical Christian body was formed in June 2010 by the union of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC).
Christianity is Indonesia's second-largest religion, after Islam. Indonesia also has the second-largest Christian population in Southeast Asia after the Philippines, the largest Protestant population in Southeast Asia, and the fourth-largest Christian population in Asia after the Philippines, China and India. Indonesia's 28.6 million Christians constitute 10.72% of the country's population in 2018, with 7.60% Protestant (20.25 million) and 3.12% Catholic (8.33 million). Some provinces in Indonesia are majority Christian.
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. According to CIA statistic, in 2000 5.7% of the population of Indonesia were Protestant. A nationwide census of 2010 noted almost 7% (16,530,000) of the population considering themselves Protestant, largest in Southeast Asia.
The Restored Reformed Church is a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It was founded in 2004, from congregations which had formed the orthodox-reformed wing of the Reformed Bond of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Church has grown steadily since its founding.
Gereja Jemaat Protestan di Indonesia is a Reformed church in the Province of Papua in Indonesia. It was created on 25 June 1984 by the Reformed Congregations in the Netherlands. It began pioneer mission work in the Yali territory. Historically this was known as Irian Jaya and was part of the Dutch East Indies. In Papua there are 250 different languages.
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.
The Protestant Christian Church of Nias or Banua Niha Keriso Protestan is a Lutheran denomination in Nias, North Sumatra. The Rhenish Missionary Society started work in Nias; the leader was E. Ludwig Denninger in 1865. Until 1900, when the Dutch colonial period came, the denomination's progression was very slow. In 1890 there were only 706 baptized members, in 1910 there were 20,000, and in 1921 there were 60,000 members. The church was officially established in 1936, when the first Synod was formed. Currently the island has a population of 500,000 members; 73% of them are Protestant, 18% Roman Catholic and 7% Muslim.