June 30, 2008

Friends,

In the fall of this year, Jakarta Theological Seminary will celebrate its 74th anniversary. Remarkably, there are still several alumni and alumnae from those early days who often grace our campus with their presence.

The Rev. Rebecca Young with the Rev. Margaret Dharma-Angkuw, the first woman to be ordained by her denomination.

One is Margaret Dharma-Angkuw, the first female graduate of the seminary. She faithfully attends every major event. I met her first last fall at the seminary’s anniversary celebration. As I shook hands with hundreds of guests in the reception line, I could not help but be amazed by this lively woman who greeted me in perfect English and insisted that I must make time to have a chat with her one day.

My chance came at the seminary’s graduation ceremony on June 7th. Having seen Margaret seated on the front row, as usual, I made a special point to seek her out during the reception. Once I had located her, I had to be patient as I waited for the crowd around her to diminish. She sat like Scarlett at the barbecue, constantly surrounded by her adoring fans and alternately engaging in conversations in Dutch, English, and Indonesian without missing a beat. Finally there was a break, so I slipped to her side. She immediately cleared a place for me to sit on the bench beside her so we could talk. I admitted to her that my camera batteries were dead, so perhaps someone from her entourage could take a photo of us? She immediately commanded a few folks from the crowd to do so. Suddenly a throng of people appeared on both sides of us, all wanting to be in the picture, such that our main photographer, a very young woman, had to back up quite far to get everyone into the photo. It was a very typical Indonesian progression of events. Once that task was completed, I asked Margaret to tell me about her history at this school.

Left to right: Rumondang Panjaitan (a current student of Becca's); Rebecca Young; Margaret Dharma-Angkuw; and new-graduate Vrilly Rondonuwu.

In 1942, she had registered to come to the seminary. (Assuming she enrolled at 18, the youngest age at which she could have, then she was born in 1924!). But between registration and the time that school was supposed to start, the Japanese invaded Indonesia and closed the school. So she had to wait until after the Allies evicted the Japanese and things calmed down after the Indonesia revolution and declaration of independence in 1945. She returned in 1946 to try again. The seminary said she was six months too late and that courses had already started. Undaunted, she came back in 1947, and this time they told her that she had not registered properly and therefore could not enroll. She tried to explain that she had already enrolled successfully in 1942, but they were adamant. In 1948 she made sure to come in plenty of time and fill out all the forms according to the regulations. Then her schooling began.

Margaret was ordained in 1955, the first woman in her denomination to achieve that distinction. But she said because it was all so new, “The men didn’t know what to do with me!” Instead of assigning her to a pastorate, they placed her in a synod office for the West Indonesia Protestant Church, where she had a variety of roles in women’s work. She then moved to the offices of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (DGI) where she served with social programs, including women’s work. She was there for 25 years, and during that time also began serving as a chaplain at the nearby Cikini Hospital, which is run by the DGI. Having started in 1962, she has seen quite a number of changes over the years. At the age of 83, she goes every Monday through Friday to the chaplain’s office and does her rounds.

After I mentioned I was from the United States, she told me about her experience there. In 1958, she was invited by the Presbyterian Church with a group of other Indonesians to attend some sort of Presbyterian reunion. She recalled that one of the people involved with the group on the U.S. side was Margaret Shannon, who is quite well-known in Presbyterian circles and through Church Women United for her women’s leadership. Margaret Dharma-Angkuw was thrilled to meet someone who shared her first name and her concerns for women. At that time, women were not yet being ordained in the United States, so the Americans she met were impressed. The Indonesian delegation was quite proud to be ahead of the United States on that particular score.

The group was invited to tour the White House, and at the beginning of the tour, Margaret was chosen to be the one to address Mrs. Eisenhower when she received them at the end of the tour. Margaret said that as she walked through the various rooms, she was so nervous thinking about what to say, she was unable to pay the least bit of attention to what she was seeing. She laughed, “I went through the Blue Room and the Red Room and probably some other rooms, but I was so distracted, I can’t tell you what was in any of them!” But then she heard that Mrs. Eisenhower was Presbyterian, which became her opening. Once she established that commonality, the First Lady was completely charmed. She even invited Margaret to an event where Eleanor Roosevelt was in attendance, and Margaret was thrilled to get to shake hands with another First Lady.

As you can surely tell, I am as charmed by Margaret as Mamie Eisenhower once was. Margaret is a remarkable example of the dedication of the many graduates of this seminary who continue to serve throughout their lifetimes in various roles as Christian leaders, whether in a pastorate, chaplaincy, or administrative positions, throughout the 74 years of the seminary’s history.

Rebecca Young

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94