Christianity was brought to the Timor archipelago about 1550 by missionaries of the Dominican Order (OP). When the Dutch came (1613) they did not drive out the Catholic clergy, as they had done in the Moluccas. As a consequence, Catholicism and also the Portuguese could maintain themselves. Nowadays RCath in the region are three times as numerous as Prot. Kupang became the center of Protestantism, but as the region was not economically important to the Dutch, until the end of the 19th century development was slow, with the exception of a group movement on the island of Rote in the 1740s. About 1800 there were 10,000 Prot Christians. In the 19th century an attempt by a Dutch missionary society to effect a breakthrough failed. Only after 1900, when the colonial government had established an effective administration on Timor, did the Protestant Church start an active evangelistic program which adopted elements from the methods developed by the missionary societies. Between 1912 and 1938 the number of Prot Christians increased tenfold. During the 1930s preparations for church independence began, which were completed in 1947. In the 1950s a certain weariness dominated, but in the ’60s the church experienced a great revival (1966-1969). Some of the causes were the general feeling of insecurity after the 1965 coup, and the influence of the charismatic movement which had its center in Batu, East Java. In a few years the GMIT membership doubled. After 1970 a period of consolidation began. The GMIT has a number of hospitals, homes for the elderly, orphanages, and social centers, and a large number of kindergartens. It publishes a tri-monthly, Berita GMIT. The church considers October 31, 1947, as its birth date.
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