A letter from Rebecca Young in Indonesia
Christmas 2013
Dear friends in Christ,
A Muslim cleric greets a Catholic congregation on Christmas Eve, with a nativity scene on the right. Yogyakarta, Dec. 24, 2012.
The holiday season is barreling down on us once again. For those of you back home, local stores are probably already decked with Christmas decorations. It’s happening now in Indonesia too. Just yesterday at a Jakarta mall, the employees were wearing Santa Claus hats with “Merry Christmas” written on them. A majority of the employees are Muslim, and it made for an intriguing sight.
Despite the decorations, it’s tough to catch the holiday spirit in a tropical country without hope of a white Christmas. I have to remind myself that Advent starts soon. Otherwise it’s easy to forget here on the equator, where the daily temperature reaches 90 degrees. Air-conditioning in the malls make it feel as cold as the North Pole, but it doesn’t inspire the Christmas spirit.
On Christmas Eve in 2012, however, my spirit got its fill. I attended a worship service at Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Yogyakarta. It was a memorable occasion in many ways.
Throughout the year, this church stays busy. About 2000 people attend each one of the five services every Sunday. Ten thousand bulletins are printed weekly to cover the number of worshipers.
A Protestant pastor, with Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Confucian colleagues behind her, brings the Sultan's wishes for a Merry Christmas. Yogyakarta, Dec. 24, 2012.
At holiday time, those numbers increase dramatically. Like us, Indonesia has many worshipers who are “holly-lily” Christians, coming only on Christmas Eve and Easter. Last year, 5000 worshipers attended on Christmas Eve. Since the sanctuary only seats 2000 people, tents and 3000 folding chairs were set up in the churchyard.
Inside the sanctuary was a life-size nativity scene. Statues of Mary and Joseph stood by an empty manger. The infant Jesus, a baby doll wrapped in swaddling clothes, was carried in during the opening procession. It wasn’t surprising to see some of the altar boys and girls wearing Santa hats for the occasion.
In 2012, the decorations had a special theme: sharing the news of Jesus’ birth through cell phones and laptop computers, with features like Facebook, twitter, blogs, and Blackberry messages. The walls and ceiling of the sanctuary were covered with symbols of these modern ways of communicating. It was disconcerting to see computer-related symbols inside a church. But the purpose was to remind us that modern technology can help spread the good news about Jesus. One way for Christians to “go tell it on the mountain” nowadays is to share it online.
Above the crowded pews, a variety of symbols from computer and cell phone communication provide the Christmas decorations. Yogyakarta, Dec. 24, 2012.
The most surprising event of the evening, however, was a special group of visitors who joined the worshippers in the pews. The group consisted of representatives from five major religious groups: Buddhist, Confucian and Hindu priests, Muslim clerics, and a Protestant pastor. At the beginning of the service, the delegation took turns greeting the congregation with Christmas wishes on behalf of the people of their respective faiths. It was a special thrill for me when the Protestant pastor, who happened to be a woman, took her turn in the pulpit, which is usually reserved for male priests, and conveyed a message of holiday greetings on behalf of the local sultan, a man named Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X.
No, there is not a typographical error in that last paragraph, nor do you need to reload your computer page or call your eye doctor for new glasses. You read it correctly. By the grace of God, all those things actually happened. On Christmas Eve, December 24, 2012, an ordained Protestant woman in a Catholic pulpit conveyed a sultan’s Christmas wishes to 5000 Roman Catholics on behalf of a gathering of Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu and Muslim leaders. I nearly wept with joy to witness this Christmas miracle.
The delegation of religious leaders greeted the Catholic worshippers in a reception line after the service. Yogyakarta, Dec. 24, 2012.
To understand fully how miraculous the moment was, it helps to understand the context. Shortly before the holidays, some Muslim clerics had declared that Indonesian Muslims shouldn’t say “Merry Christmas” to their Christian family members, friends, and neighbors. The sultan in Yogyakarta, who is a Muslim, decided to disobey the prohibition in grand style. In early December, the sultan contacted the Santo Antonius congregation and asked if he could have a few minutes during the Christmas Eve service to greet the congregation. The worship committee eagerly made time in the liturgy for the sultan to speak.
Sadly, on the morning of Dec. 24th, a brother of the sultan’s wife passed away. Understandably, the sultan sent his regrets to the church because he needed to be with his wife’s family in their time of mourning. But he didn’t renege on his commitment. He sent the delegation described above as his representatives, and they did not disappoint him or us. They acted warm, gracious, and were caught up in the holiday spirit along with the rest of us. They took time to greet many of the worshippers personally in a reception line after the service.
That night, the magic of Christmas happened once again. There in a Javanese worship service, the infant Jesus miraculously brought together people from east and west, from north and south, to sit together in praise of the one God.
Through your generous support and prayers for the PC(USA) and our shared mission, you play an important part in the ever-repeating miracle of Christmas. Your support is crucial to make possible not just my presence in Indonesia, but the faithful witness and work of a network of mission co-workers. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read the newsletters of my colleagues on the Mission Connections webpages. They, like me, will witness to the miracle of how, in every corner of the globe, again and again, a tiny baby in a manger brings people together in a spirit of peace, harmony and mutual respect. Please keep us in your prayers, and consider how you can keep the miracle alive for this coming holiday season and many to come.
Merry Christmas to you and yours,
With love,
Becca
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 199
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