Questioning HKBP leadership
Questioning HKBP leadership
PWT Simanjuntak said at his press conference that "if the
dissident reverends and church members defy our call for
repentance, we will have no choice other than to expel them," as
you put in The Jakarta Post on Oct. 4, 1995.
His statement is very strange because his leadership is not
guaranteed by our church's constitution, nor supported by most
HKBP members. His leadership is illegal. His leadership is the
result of what is called "an unconstitutional Tiara hotel special
synod" which was convened by an acting bishop whose mandate was
given by the North Sumatra Military Commander, then Maj. Gen. HR
Pramono, in a military decree issued on Dec. 23, 1992.
Based on this military decree, the acting bishop, Dr. SM
Siahaan (who now claims to be HKBP General Secretary) convened
the unconstitutional synod which elected PWT Simanjuntak and SM
Siahaan as bishop and general secretary respectively.
Strange because PWT Simanjuntak is not acknowledged by most
HKBP members and 514 HKBP church workers (including 234 pastors,
93 assistant pastors, 58 women preachers and 50 deaconess)
because he was dismissed from HKBP for poor discipline in 1979.
According to the HKBP constitution, he is not allowed to be the
leader of HKBP.
Article 10 of the HKBP constitution states: One is regarded as
a HKBP member if he/she is baptized, confirmed, agrees with HKBP
confession and follows the HKBP constitution.
Since Simanjuntak has violated the HKBP constitution and his
leadership is unconstitutional, he is by constitution no longer a
HKBP member and already expelled from the church. How can he then
threaten to expel the 514 church workers?
He may obtain government support, but as a legal religious
organization HKBP is not under the government and its leadership
does not need to seek acknowledgment from the government.
Simanjuntak's attempts to force HKBP members to acknowledge him
will fail because he does not have the moral and spiritual
support of HKBP people. Worst still, the national and
international Christian communities do not regard him as a legal
HKBP bishop.
He had to hold his pastors' meeting in Jakarta because in
Sumatra he gets minimal support and feels insecure because he has
violated HKBP members' human rights in Sumatra since 1993. In his
attempt to get support, his faction has intimidated HKBP members
and pastors, destroyed their houses, taken their worship places
and churches by force, injured hundreds of people, and killed
Herbert Hutasoit and lately Leovold Sitompul in Binjei, Sumatra
on June 25, 1995.
REV ROBINSON BUTARBUTAR
Jakarta