Christianity and Culture

Today we drive over the Gunung Kebun Kopi mountain range to the east coast and visit communities that have been created by government resettlement programs, among other things.

Around 18 million people were officially resettled over a period of around 90 years. The government’s main aim was to resettle people from the very densely populated islands of Bali, Java, Madura and Lombok to the less populated islands of Kalimantan, Sumatra and Sulawesi. Sometimes, however, it was conflicts between religious communities that forced people to relocate.

We visit the two communities of Sumbersari and Mari, which were created by the emigration of Christian families from Bali to Central Sulawesi. They brought their culture with them and still cultivate it today. This is also evident in the architecture of the church buildings.

The religious communities – Christians, Muslims and Hindus – now live together peacefully in this region. This was not always the case and an important contribution to this is made by the dialog of an interfaith forum (Forum Kerukunan antar umat beragama – FKUB) that has now been established in many regions of Indonesia, as well as the good cooperation with the board of the Muslim Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia – MUI) in Palu.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to talk to the FKUB in Palu and Prof. Dr. KH. Zainal Abidin from the Muslim Council. Catholics, Protestants, Pentecostals, Muslims and Buddhists are represented in the Interreligious Council in Palu. Prof. Dr. Abidin emphasizes the connections between the religions: the dignity of man and his likeness to God, love for one’s neighbour, responsibility for peace. It is often economic causes, ethnic backgrounds or a fundamentalist understanding of one’s own religion that lead to conflicts. The discussion gives us the opportunity to talk about the work of the Councils of Religions and our experiences in interreligious dialog in the Rhine-Main region. There was a lively exchange in which critical questions about the situation of refugees in Germany and discrimination against people with a migration background were also addressed.

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