The unique side of city's old churches

The unique side of city's old churches

By Ida Indawati Khouw

In commemoration of the Easter Day on Apr. 23, the serial on
old and protected buildings in Jakarta will be focused on old
churches. This is the 35th item of a series of articles,
published every Saturday in The Jakarta Post.

JAKARTA (JP): City residents can no longer visit the beautiful
and ornamented churches in the old city of Batavia (old name for
Jakarta), at present downtown Kota area in West Jakarta, as all
of them were already demolished hundreds of years ago.

Unlike present churches made up of hundreds of different
Christian denominations, a unique atmosphere could be found
inside all of the houses of worship in the old city.

This is because they belonged to the same Reformed Church (or
Calvinist) denomination, a branch of Protestantism introduced by
French reformer Jean Calvin.

Since Calvinism was the state religion in the Netherlands at
that time, it was not surprising to find that Batavia was also
the home of "the Reformed Church community".

Houses of worship belonging to other religions, like Islamic
mosques, Chinese temples and even Catholic churches, were
forbidden.

Only after 1749 were other Christian denominations allowed in
the city through the establishment of the Lutheran church,
another branch of Protestantism introduced by German reformer
Martin Luther.

Lutheran churches can be found on Jl. Teh in Kota.

Dutch was the dominant language used in the old churches.

Out of the existing six churches in old Batavia, only two of
them -- the Lutheran Church and the Portuguese Church Inside (the
wall) -- used non-Dutch languages in their services, namely
German and Portuguese.

Unlike in the eastern part of the country where Christianity
also became the religion of many local residents, in the
country's western part, such as Batavia, Christianity only
belonged to outsiders, historian Th. van den End said in his book
Ragi Carita, Sejarah Gereja di Indonesia 1500-1860 (Ragi Carita,
Church History in Indonesia 1500-1860)

"As traders, the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) did not give
priority to evangelism .... They will do that only when it is
profitable for them....," he said.

In the beginning, Dutch Christians held religious services at
one room of the second City Hall building (1627-1707), which is
today the Jakarta Historical Museum, while the congregation
waited for the completion of a construction called Oude Hollandse
Kerk (Old Dutch Church), which was finished in 1640.

At the same time, there was also a chapel for employees
working inside the old castle, the first fortress built by the
Dutch, located where Jl. Tongkol area is now.

The old church, which was built on the site of the present
Puppet Museum on Jl. Pos Kota, was also called Kruiskerk (Cross
Church) because the building's ground plan formed a cross.

In 1732 the church was demolished because it could not contain
an Organ which was imported from the Netherlands, Adolf Heuken
said in his book Historical Sites of Jakarta.

As a replacement, the Nieuwe Hollandse Kerk (the New Dutch
Church) was built in 1736 as the tallest domed building in
Batavia with its octagonal shape.

Visiting Dutch Historian Max de Bruijn said the new house of
worship was the most important church in the city because it was
the place where the Batavia Church Council governed.

"It was also the place where Dutch governor generals attended
Sunday services," he said.

Following the Western tradition, the house of worship also
became a graveyard. The founder of Batavia, Governor General Jan
Pieterszoon Coen, along with 18 other governor generals, was
buried there.

The building was cracked due to an earthquake and it was then
demolished in 1808 under the instruction of Governor General
Herman Willem Daendels, who needed building materials for the new
city of Weltevreden.

A unique point about women in the congregations of the Batavia
churches was made by de Bruijn in his paper on the Lutheran
Church in Batavia.

"With the exception of wives of the members of government, all
women were seated in special chairs.... The placement of women in
the middle of the church was common in the Protestant churches of
this period," he said.

De Bruijn also said that (when attending the services) the
women were also accompanied by slaves, who would doggedly follow
their masters wherever they went.

"The female slaves would sit on the floor near their masters.
One of the main reasons for this was to be able to serve them
sirih or betel vine."

Such conditions were not surprising because, according to him,
church attendance was primarily a social obligation for the
Batavia elite.

However, according to historian Van den End, the number of
church members grew continuously so that by 1700 there were about
15,000 Christians. In 1720, the number of people living inside
the walled city was 20,000, according to de Bruijn.

Van den End said that in Batavia, a congregation was divided
into three groups based on the language they spoke: Europeans
made up 40 percent of the total number of Christians, "Black
Portuguese" -- Dutch prisoners from India and Sri Lanka who were
freed after they abandoned Catholicism and became Protestant --
and Malay.

"In 1621 there was a congregation which conducted its services
in Malay. This included people from other areas and Indonesians
in Batavia who became Christians," he said.

Both the "Black Portuguese" and Malay congregations held their
services at the Portuguese Binnenkerk or Portuguese Church Inside
(the wall) built in 1673 where Jl. Kopi now stands today.

It was given the name because there was also a Portuguese
Church Outside, the present Sion Church on Jl. Pangeran
Jayakarta.