Indonesia is a nation
of 17,000 islands spread out over the equator in an area about
the size of the United States. It has the fourth largest population
in the world and is the largest Muslim country, with a Muslim
population larger than that in the whole Middle East. Indonesia
has a large Christian minority of about 20 million Christians,
most of whom are members of Reformed churches. Indonesia became
the third largest democracy in the world in 1998. After several
years of transitional governments and power conflicts, Indonesians
elected a stable government that brought an end to religious
and ethnic conflicts and is struggling to foster economic recovery
and institutional reform. These efforts have been hampered by
an unprecedented series of natural disasters, including tsunamis,
earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions, which
have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and left millions
homeless.
Indonesia is proud of its long tradition of tolerance between
Islam and other religions. The church has grown and prospered
in Indonesia in spite of occasional conflicts with the Muslim
majority. During the past fifteen years, the educational level
among Indonesian Muslims has increased rapidly, fueling an outpouring
of books, art, and other forms of Islamic culture.
In Yogyakarta, a cultural and educational center on the island
of Java, universities from different religious traditions have
developed enough trust to open an interuniversity, integrative
a doctoral program in religious studies. In October 2006, the
rectors of secular, Muslim, and Christian universities signed
a detailed certificate of agreement to form the Indonesian Consortium
for Religious Studies (ICRS-Yogya), which includes Duta Wacana
Christian University, a partner of the PC(USA). The current
director of ICRS-Yogya is Dr. Bernard Adeney-Risakotta, a PC(USA)
mission co-worker. |
