Indonesian Christian Church
GKI
Kompleks Ruko Gading Bukit Indah blok Q-29 Jl. Bukit Gading Raya, Kelapa Gading Office
Jakarta 14240 Indonesia (Asia) Telephone: +62.21 4585 0904 Fax: +62.21 4585 2899 Email: synodgki@indo.net.id Address-No.: 1320 / 4200
The GKI has its origins in mission work among the Chinese and people of Chinese descent on Java in the 19th century by a number of Dutch missionary societies and the American Methodists (1905-1928). Chinese evangelists and lay people played a large part in the spreading of Christianity, and the congr were relatively independent from the missions and their missionaries. Their common history starts with the Cipaku Conference in 1926, which aimed at the unity of the Christians of Chinese descent on Java. The founding of the Church of Christ in China (1927) was a stimulus toward independence. After 1930 a number of these congr coalesced into four regional churches (East Java 1934, Central Java 1935 and 1936, West Java 1938), each of which more or less bore the stamp of its founding mission. At the time the combined membership was ? 3,500. With a view toward future unity, these churches initially had the status of classis. However, in the fifties they constituted themselves into four Synods. Three of these took the name of Gereja Kristen Indonesia Jawa Barat/Tengah/Timur.In 1962 for the first time the three churches convened in a General Synod, but not until August 1988 was the projected church union finally realized. This union was strengthened when the united GKI declared itself as a member of the PGI instead of the three constituent churches (1994). Currently the church is in the process of drawing up a church order which will replace the constitutions of the separate churches. Gradually the GKI is taking on a multi-ethnic character. It encompasses only a minority of the Indonesians of Chinese descent, as many belong to the RCath Church and to Prot churches of Pentecostal, Mennonite, and other denominations. The church has general health clinics, several older people�s homes, and a social welfare organization. It publishes a trimonthly theological magazine, Penuntun, and a general monthly, Kairos. The GKI considers February 22, 1934, as its date of birth.
The GKI has its origins in mission work among the Chinese and people of Chinese descent on Java in the 19th century by a number of Dutch missionary societies and the American Methodists (1905-1928). Chinese evangelists and lay people played a large part in the spreading of Christianity, and the congr were relatively independent from the missions and their missionaries. Their common history starts with the Cipaku Conference in 1926, which aimed at the unity of the Christians of Chinese descent on Java. The founding of the Church of Christ in China (1927) was a stimulus toward independence. After 1930 a number of these congr coalesced into four regional churches (East Java 1934, Central Java 1935 and 1936, West Java 1938), each of which more or less bore the stamp of its founding mission. At the time the combined membership was ? 3,500. With a view toward future unity, these churches initially had the status of classis. However, in the fifties they constituted themselves into four Synods. Three of these took the name of Gereja Kristen Indonesia Jawa Barat/Tengah/Timur.In 1962 for the first time the three churches convened in a General Synod, but not until August 1988 was the projected church union finally realized. This union was strengthened when the united GKI declared itself as a member of the PGI instead of the three constituent churches (1994). Currently the church is in the process of drawing up a church order which will replace the constitutions of the separate churches. Gradually the GKI is taking on a multi-ethnic character. It encompasses only a minority of the Indonesians of Chinese descent, as many belong to the RCath Church and to Prot churches of Pentecostal, Mennonite, and other denominations. The church has general health clinics, several older people�s homes, and a social welfare organization. It publishes a trimonthly theological magazine, Penuntun, and a general monthly, Kairos. The GKI considers February 22, 1934, as its date of birth.