Church Construction Plan in Solo Faces Resident Rejection

The plan to build a church in RT 4 RW 7, Banyuanyar Village, Banjarsari District, Solo City, Central Java, has faced rejection from a number of residents. Residents acting on behalf of the Banyuanyar Muslim Coordinator (KUIB) have lodged their objections to the plan through a letter addressed to the Mayor of Solo, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and the Chair of the Solo Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB). Separately, a number of residents also staged a protest against the church construction plan on Thursday, 11 June 2026.

Pastor Eko Prasetyo, who assists the committee for the construction of the Javanese Christian Church (GKJ) in Banyuanyar, acknowledged the residents’ rejection of the plan. He explained that the permit process for establishing the church had actually been initiated around 2023, following a fairly lengthy procedure. However, the process was temporarily delayed as it coincided with the political momentum ahead of the general election.

According to Eko, the committee has also fulfilled nearly all the requirements in the process of establishing a place of worship. He noted there are 10 requirements according to the Joint Ministerial Decree (SKB) of Two Ministers concerning the establishment of places of worship. The church construction committee has met almost all of these requirements. “Of the 10 requirements, there are two additional ones that have not been fulfilled. First, socialisation to the residents, and second, a certificate from the National Land Agency (BPN) stating that the land status is not in dispute,” Eko said when met by Tempo at his home on Saturday, 13 June 2026.

He explained that obtaining the certificate from BPN requires a number of supporting documents, including recommendations or statements from the RT, RW, and village chief levels. However, when the processing of these documents was carried out, the situation coincided with the stages of the Regional Head Election, causing the submission process for the certificate at the village level to BPN to be postponed. “The village authorities at that time requested a postponement to maintain regional conduciveness ahead of the Regional Head Election,” he said.

He added that at that time, the GKJ had also scheduled a socialisation activity for the community on 16 October 2023. However, before the agenda could be carried out, banners containing rejection of the church establishment plan had already circulated, although the banners were not displayed for long as they were taken down again.

Meanwhile, the residents’ objection letter cited six reasons for rejecting the construction of the GKJ in Banyuanyar. The Banyuanyar residents’ advocate, Endro Sudarsono, stated that these reasons included the location being in a densely populated village where the majority of residents are Muslim, the failure to meet the government-mandated requirements for church establishment, and the location’s proximity to Muslim residents’ homes and a mosque. “Furthermore, the GKI Nusukan church already exists, the majority of the prospective congregation are not Banyuanyar residents, and there is no official endorsement from the Village Chief,” Endro said, reading out the residents’ objection letter when contacted by Tempo.

Responding to the issue, the Chair of the Solo FKUB, Mashuri, assessed that the rejection action against the GKJ establishment plan in Banyuanyar was triggered by miscommunication between the parties involved in the permit process. He explained that the church establishment plan had actually been processed since several years ago. At that time, the church establishment committee had submitted the administrative requirements file to the FKUB, attaching the support of 90 prospective congregants and 60 local residents as stipulated in the provisions for establishing a place of worship.

After an administrative review, the FKUB declared that the requirements had been met. The file was then forwarded to the local government authorities for factual verification in the field. “If I am not mistaken, at the end of 2023 or early 2024, the administrative requirements were fulfilled and we handed them over to the local authorities, in this case the village chief and district head, for the factual verification process,” Mashuri said.

According to him, factual verification is a crucial stage to ensure that the identities of the residents providing support genuinely match the submitted data. The process includes checking the residents’ existence, domicile, and ensuring that the support was given without any pressure or coercion. However, this stage could not be immediately implemented as it coincided with a series of national and regional political agendas. To maintain a conducive situation, the local government at that time decided to postpone the verification process until all election stages were completed. “Because it was ahead of the presidential election, legislative election, and regional head election, the local policy was to postpone the process until the regional head election was finished,” he stated.

After the election stages concluded, the church establishment committee resubmitted a request for the permit process to continue. Following up on this request, the FKUB, together with the National Unity and Political Agency (Kesbangpol), the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and local government elements, held a coordination meeting earlier this week. The meeting discussed the next steps and invited the two relevant parties, namely the church establishment committee and KUIB. From the meeting, it was agreed that re-verification was necessary before the process proceeds to the next stage.

Mashuri revealed that a misunderstanding arose regarding the invitation to the meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Some parties assumed the agenda was a final socialisation regarding the church permit, whereas the meeting was actually intended as an initial stage to discuss re-verification. “What was understood by some parties was that the meeting was a socialisation for the construction. In fact, the process is still lengthy and has not reached that stage,” he said. He assessed that this misunderstanding subsequently triggered the rejection action, which was carried out without prior coordination with the FKUB.

Mashuri stressed that the public need not rush to conclude the final outcome of the permit process, as many stages still need to be passed. If the administrative re-verification is declared to meet the requirements, the file must still undergo factual verification by the village authorities.