May 15, 2012

When churches in the Karo region of North Sumatra, Indonesia began to integrate the traditional music, instruments and dances of the Indigenous Karo people into Sunday worship, church membership soared, says the head of the region's largest group of Protestant churches.

Pastor Matius P. Barus, Moderator of the Gereja Batak Karo Protestan Church (GBKP), made his comments in a presentation to the Executive Committee of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) that is meeting in Berastagi, North Sumatra, 10-17 May.

Committee members from Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, the Middle East and other parts of Asia were briefed by Barus on the history and contemporary situation of the church in Karo.

Barus told the group that in the first 75 years of Christian presence in the area, there had been few converts. Traditional music and dances were excluded from church services and the first missionaries from the Netherlands were viewed with suspicion as colonialists.

In 1965, the Indonesian government made it mandatory for people to state their religion by choosing among officially approved religions. The traditional belief system of the Karonese people was not on the list of five faith choices: Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Forced to choose which faith to convert to, many Karonese chose the GBKP because of its openness to their traditions. Membership increased dramatically with sometimes 2000 baptisms in a single day.

Keeping a balance between including traditional customs, such as burial practices, and staying faithful to the basic beliefs of the Christian faith has not always been easy, Barus says. But discussion and study led to the creation of a manual to help pastors and church elders decide how to determine what is acceptable practice.

Today the church has 300,000 members in 489 congregations. In the Karo region, 30 per cent of Christians are GBKP. Twenty per cent of the population is Muslim. The GBKP is the largest Christian denomination in the area.

In an evening of Karonese food, music and dance following Barus' presentation, the 50 WCRC participants heard songs played on traditional bamboo instruments and watched dances depicting rice planting and harvesting. The varied programme that included a choir and dance group from local congregations was enthusiastically received.

The area's governor, Kena Ukur Karo Jambi Surbakti, welcomed the international group. Surbakti, a GBKP church Elder, was accompanied by former church leaders, the current Moderator, and the chair of the local committee that made the arrangements for the meeting.

In thanking the host church for the introduction to Karonese church history and culture, WCRC President Jerry Pillay noted the hospitality, planning and attention to detail that the local hosts were providing.

"It is this kind of gathering of local Christians and Christians from around the world that is at the heart WCRC," he said. "It is here that we learn about each other, pray, and seek ways of supporting our sisters and brothers in Christ." WCRC was created in June 2010 through a merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC). Its 230 member churches representing 80 million Christians are active worldwide in initiatives supporting economic, climate and gender justice, mission, and cooperation among Christians of different traditions.

World Communion of Reformed Churches