PGI Commemorating 75 Years: Churches Must Actively Fight Injustice And Ecological Crisis

General Chairperson of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), Pastor Jacklevyn F. Manuputty (Ist)

JAKARTA General Chairperson of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), Pastor Jacklevyn F. Manuputty, emphasized that churches should no longer be passive institutions to social injustice and environmental damage.

"We can't put forward our gratitude, but we were silent when the earth we stepped on screamed because of our greed," he said during the 75-year PGI celebration at the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Pondok Indah, Jakarta, through his explanation, Monday, June 2.

PGI commemorates its 75th anniversary not through a big ceremony, but through concrete actions in various regions. The initial plan to hold a celebration at ICE BSD was canceled and replaced with a series of social and ecological activities.

The action includes mass blood donation, distribution of basic necessities to people affected by inflation and disasters, planting trees, and rehabilitation of damaged land. In coastal areas, PGI restores mangrove forests in Maluku and West Papua, as well as coral reefs in Ambon in collaboration with fishermen and young divers.

"We are a boat of faith that continues to row against the flow of egoism and theology that forgets that Allah is walking with historical victims," said Rev.

With the theme 'From Monument to Ecosystem: Pilgrimage of Iman, Luka, and Resistance', PGI wants to emphasize that churches cannot only be a symbol of historical nostalgia.

The church must be present in various real problems such as agrarian conflicts, ecological disasters, and the struggle for social justice from Papua to Mentawai, from Tanimbar to Kalimantan.

PGI also highlighted the hectic hashtag #Indonesia\dark on social media as a form of public unrest over the moral and justice crisis. According to Rev. Wherever, the church should not only be a comfortable place, but must be ready to assume the 'public cross' and become the locomotive of social change.

He called equimentism a 'national pilgrimage', not just a discourse of the elite. The church, he said, must take sides, be open, think hard, and act real. Differences between believers and culture should be celebrated as a gift, not considered as a threat.

"The church is not just a matter of being clear, but a matter of whether justice, goodness, and truth are still carried away," he concluded.

The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) was founded on May 25, 1950 and now houses 105 synodes throughout Indonesia. PGI continues to actively fight for social justice, peace, and environmental sustainability.