"It is not right that Christians and Muslims are killing each other in Ambon," said Dr. H. Marasabessy, a Muslim and the state religion minister for the Maluku region of Indonesia, during a meeting with two Adventist church leaders. "After all, we worship
“It is not right that Christians and Muslims are killing each other in Ambon,” said Dr. H. Marasabessy, a Muslim and the state religion minister for the Maluku region of Indonesia, during a meeting with two Adventist church leaders. “After all, we worship the same God.”
Dr. Marasabessy discussed the challenge of peacemaking with Dr. John Graz, general secretary of the Christian World Communions and secretary-general of the International Religious Liberty Association, and Lincoln Steed, editor of Liberty magazine. The official quoted the admonition of Jesus Christ that we “love one another,” as a workable answer.
The visit to Ambon came in late November at a time of truce after nearly three years of vicious bloodletting, during which up to 6,000 Christians and Muslims were killed and thousands of homes burned. The government of Indonesia, a nation of 212 million people of which 80 percent are Muslims, had sealed the area under a state of emergency until September of last year.
The visit by Graz and Steed was one of the first by religious liberty leaders from outside the country, apart from a visit earlier in the year by Hissiah Missah, an Indonesian and the Adventist Church’s Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director in Manila, Philippines. That visit marked the first contact by Adventist leadership with the church’s work there.
Graz and Steed found an area devastated by conflict. They saw the burned-out State Pattimura University and a sad mosaic of burned villages, both Christian and Muslim. In downtown Ambon, the provincial capital of about 300,000, were many burned buildings, including the police headquarters. At the central Seventh-day Adventist Church they were shown large caliber bullet holes through the walls and around the pulpit. Another downtown church is a burned-out shell, although reconstruction has begun.
Graz, Steed and Missah met with synod general secretary Reverend S.J. Mailoa and moderator Dr. I.W.J. Hendriks. “We never abandoned our church and offices, even during the violence,” affirmed Mailoa. No attempt has been made to burn the building.
The group also met in a Muslim neighborhood at the home of Deputy Mayor Sari Hadler, who stated that he is working closely with the synod to “heal our community.”
“During the violence,” he said, “no Christian would dare try to come here. They would be killed. And today we receive you as friends.”
Promoting religious liberty and tolerance is an important mission for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which founded the IRLA in 1893. Adventists organized a Maluku mission of the church in Ambon in 1929.
