I am Fr. Antonios from central Java. I am a married priest with one wife: Presbytera Marina , and one son (Ireneus ) and two daughters (Paraskevi and Kyriaki). Ireneus and Paraskevi are in the university, while Kyriaki is still in the primary school. Before I tell my story, I think I should tell you about my Javanese culture so that you can understand where I come from. Javanese people comprise the largest ethnic group of more than 350 ethnic groups in Indonesia. The Javanese have their own language that is completely different from the national language of Indonesia, the Bahasa Indonesia. There are more than 350 different separate languages and dialects in the country.

In his world famous book “The Religion of Java”, published in the sixties, Clifford Geertz divided Javanese society into three groups: Priyayi, Abangan and Santri. It happened that he made his field research in a small town which he called “Mojokuto” in his book, which is actually a fictitious name for a real town, Pare, which is a few kilometers away from Kediri City, which is my home town.

“Priyayi” stands for an aristocratic group within Javanese society who are directly or indirectly connected with Javanese royal family bloodline. They comprised the elite in contrast to the masses, or “little people” (Wong cilik) within the Javanese society. Until the 18th century the priyayi, under the royal families, were the rulers of the Javanese states. They emphasized the refined court life and high etiquette, as well as intricate high Javanese language, as the sign of being a priyayi. This priyayi culture is largely influenced by the Javanese historical past of Hindu and Buddhist way of thinking, worldview and outlook which emphasized the importance of meditations, asceticism and union with the divine. This largely Hindu-Buddhist influence of the priyayi spiritual and mystical belief and practices are known as Javanese mysticism or “Kebatinan”. The famous Javanese “Wayang Kulit” shadow play that depicts the Hindu epic story of Mahabharata and Ramayana accompanied by the very refined “Gamelan” percussion music orchestra, along with the Javanese refined graceful court dances are the hallmark and icon of the priyayi culture. Some scholars consider “priyayi” cuture as a variant of Islam within Javanese society, because in spite of what is said about the priyayi culture, officially they consider themselves to be Muslims.

“Abangan” is the culture of the non-aristocratic Javanese masses, or “little people” (Wong cilik). It does not have the character of priyayi’s emphasis on refinement in the matters of way of life and high etiquette as well as high Javanese language. The priyayi considered the abangan culture as being uncouth or rough (“kasar”), in contrast to their own, which is refined (“halus”). The abangan people, even though they officially still consider themselves Muslims, do not espouse Islamic tenets and do not practice any of the Islamic religious practices. Their connection with Islam is very nominal; rather they practice the folk-beliefs influenced by Javanese animism. For them the world of the spirits is real, and they are surrounded by these spirits. Therefore the most important religious practices for this group of Javanese masses are the offering to the spirits or the deceased. There are two kinds of offerings – individual offering called as “sesajen” and given to sacred places and shrines, and communal offering in the form of sacramental common meal, known as the “slametan”. Paranormal practitioners, or the “dukuns”, are kind of priests for this Javanese “abangan” religion.

An almanac book known as “Primbon” is considered to be a book of guidance for a person on how to find auspicious days for any undertaking, or to find the meaning of dreams, and any good or bad omens that one may receive. It also contains intricate calculations of one’s day of birth or horoscope for the purpose of embarking in any business or any activities in life, and it is a kind of Holy Scriptures to the “abangan”.

The abangan culture also has a kind of religious practices of its own, such as a variety of fasting, the commemoration of one’s day of birth, and various rites of passage. Some lower-ranking priyayi are also considered to be part of the “abangan” variant. My family belonged to this last variant.

“Santri” is a name given to Orthodox Muslims, who cling to Islamic tenets and religious practices in the Javanese society. The santris have their own typical Javanese religious institutions called as the “Pesantren”. It is a religious boarding school, where young Muslims are taught by the “Kyahi” (Religious Teacher) various subjects on Islamic religion. It is similar to Hindus’ “ashram” in India, and the “Kyahi” is similar to a guru.

Nowadays, however, this distinction made by Geertz is blurred, as many “priyayis” or “abangans” also consider themselves to be santris, and become more knowledgeable about Islam, while practicing their particular priyayi or abangan practices.

I was born on September 19th, 1947, into an abangan, or rather, a lower ranking priyayi family. From my childhood I lived with my “abangan” grandfather; hence, I inherited the abangan way of life and outlook, even though officially we considered ourselves to be Muslim. We did not have an emotional attachment to Islam, because we considered ourselves to be Javanese first, before we considered ourselves to be Muslims. Therefore during the fifties and sixties, when Christianity experienced unprecedented growth in Indonesia, my family decided to become Christians.

Automatically I was also included in this conversion, it all happened in the city of Kediri, East Java, a few kilometers away from Pare, where Clifford Geertz did his field work while I was going to Sunday School. I attended a Baptist church Sunday School class from 1957 to1961, and only a year later I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior Lord, a common practice among the born-again, evangelical Baptist Christians. It was also during this time, when I was 10 years of age, that I submitted myself to God for the ministry. A year later at the age of eleven years old, I was baptized in the Baptist Church. Those were the times that I attended my primary school in Kediri City (1954-1960).

After my graduation from primary school, I decided to move to Malang City to live with my parents. Malang City is a couple of hours away from Kediri to the east, and it is a very beautiful city with cool weather all year around, because it is located on the foot of a high mountain. I spent my junior high (1960-1964) and high school (1964-1967) days in Malang. During this period I changed my church membership from a Baptist Church to Dutch Reformed Protestant Church, and I served as a sunday school teacher in this church (1966-1968). In 1967 I underwent a deep conversion experience, and I was 19 years old at that time.

The following year I decided to go to the Baptist seminary in order to prepare myself for the ministry as I had dedicated myself to God when I was ten years old. So I spent my time studying theology at Indonesian Baptist Seminary (1968-1972) in the City of Semarang, the capital city of Central Java Province (9 hours away from Malang to the west, and 2 hours away from Solo to the north). During my seminary days in Semarang I also worked as a church-planter for Semarang Mennonite Church (1969-1970), but later (1970-1972) I worked as a youth leader for the Semarang Reformed Church. I graduated from the seminary in 1972. Because of my interest in children ministry, in 1973 I joined the “Leadership Training for Child Evangelism Fellowship” for one year. The following year I returned to my hometown and was a schoolteacher at Petra Elementary School for two years (1974-1976). I taught first and second grades in this school. For the next four years I found myself working with the Word Vision International, Indonesian Branch, in Jakarta (1976-1980) as a Project Officer of Child Welfare Program.

In order to equip myself more in the work of Church ministry, I went to Seoul, South Korea in 1980, and spent two years studying at the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission, where Fr. Daniel Byantoro was also a student. Soon we became close fiends. I did not know much of the inner struggle of Fr. Daniel as a student in finding the true Church, and I did not know anything about the Orthodox Church at this time. I did not realize that it was the time of Fr. Daniel’s intense search for the Apostolic Church. He did not say anything to me about his spiritual search, except that he always said that he wanted to have Christianity communicated within the Indonesian culture that has an oriental form, and he was big on enculturation, with which I agreed. He shared with me ways to do this enculturation, in theology and in practice. But at that time I did not connect this intense interest in enculturation and his emphasis on the eastern nature of Christianity with his restlessness in finding the Church of the Apostles.

In 1981 I had to leave Korea, due to some problems that I had to attend to in Indonesia, even though I had not yet finished my study. Later I finished my studies; I did not meet Fr. Daniel again for many years. I did not know what happened to him during these years.

Even though I did not consciously wait for Fr. Daniel’s return, I consider the times after my return and my ministry work in Indonesia as a waiting period, namely waiting for my being accepted to the Orthodox faith.

I returned back from South Korea to continue my ministry with the World Vision International in Jakarta for the next nine years (1981-1990). Those nine years can be divided into several periods of appointment of my ministry. In 1981-1985 I was appointed as “Church Planter Coordinator of LEPKI”. The words LEPKI stands for Indonesian words “Lembaga Pelayanan Kristen Indonesia” (Indonesian Christian Ministry Institution”) which is an agency of World Vision International. I also had the opportunity to take several different courses: in 1982 I took the “Allen Management Workshop” in Jakarta; in 1983 I took “Advanced Pastoral Studies” in Malang City; in 1985 I attended “Communication Workshop” in Manila, The Phillipines; in 1988 I took “Dale Carnegie Course” in Jakarta; in 1989 I attended “Prasetya Mulya Management Institute” in Jakarta; in 1990 I attended “Team Integration Workshop” In Jakarta; and in 1990 I took “Workshop on Managing Project” in Jakarta. After I left World Vision, I took two more courses where in 1993 I took “Management Academic Workshop” in Malang, and finally in1996 I attended “Institute of Christian Education Studies” in Malang City.

In order to expand the LEPKI’s mission works, in 1984 I received my ordination as a pastor from a “GEPSULTRA” local denomination. The word GEPSULTRA is an acronym for “Gereja Protestan Sulawesi Tenggara” (The South East Sulawesi Protestant Church”). In 1985 – 1990 I was appointed as a Spiritual Program Coordinator of World Vision, Jakarta, by working with LEPKI in Malang City.

During this time Fr. Daniel Byantoro, who was overseas, contacted me. I was surprised when he told me that he had become an Orthodox Christian and had been ordained a priest. He told me that he would return to Indonesia on June 8, 1988. He also informed me that his mother (now deceased), and a friend of his brother (Fr. Yohanes), a young Pentecostal evangelist by the name of Parluhutan Manalu (who later became his paid office staff worker and has now become an Orthodox priest under the Greek jurisdiction) would come to pick him up at the airport in Jakarta. He asked me to meet him at the airport.

The coming of Fr. Daniel after almost ten years away from Indonesia was a joy to all of us. Fr. Daniel stayed with our family for several days before he embarked to his hometown to see his relatives. He often visited our family whenever he had to do his mission works in Jakarta. While he was with us, he shared a lot of things with us about the Orthodox faith. I felt an affinity with what he told us. It is because being a Christian from an “abangan” Javanese background with a tint of priyayi culture, something rang a bell in me. In the Javanese mystical tradition, God is spoken of as “Sejatine ora ana apa-apa, sing ana iku dudu” (“In truth there is nothing, thing which is, actually is not”), in the sense that in the very reality God is “nothing” when expressed by human speech. What human speech and ideas can say about God as “is”, the “is” of these human speech and human idea about God, “is not” when the reality of God in Him is concerned. So when Fr. Daniel related the Orthodox idea of “apopathic approach” of God, that God is “unknown in His essence”, with this familiar Javanese belief, my Javanese soul was rekindled. It is this very mystery of God that I lacked and tried to bury when I became a Protestant, yet it had never gone away.

Also, Fr. Daniel connected the Orthodox teaching, that God in His “essence” is unknown which means God is unapproachable in the depth of His Being, yet in His “energy” He can be experienced through His Holy Spirit, thus God is closer to man than his own soul, with that of the twofold reality of God in the Javanese mystical belief that God is “far”, yet ”near”, or “unapproachable” yet “dwells in each of us”. It reminded me of Javanese belief that God is “adoh tanpa wangenan, nanging cedhak tanpa sesenggolan” (“so far away without limit, yet so close by without being able to be touched”). He is far away without limit, because He is unapproachable as no one knows God’s Essence, yet He is so close by, because through the Holy Spirit God causes His Energy to dwell within us.

Again I was amazed when Fr. Daniel related between the Incarnation of Christ in which the Humanity of Christ is united to His Divinity in His One Person without confusion, without mingling, and without separation and without division, and the Javanese mystical idea of “Manunggaling Kawula lan Gusti” (“The Union between the Servant/Creation and the Master/Creator”). The Humanity of Christ is of course in the nature of “servant/kawula = creation”, and His divinity is in the nature of “Master/Gusti = Creator”. Therefore I could see that Christ is the fulfillment and the key toward achieving this Javanese yearning for “Manunggaling Kawula lan Gusti”.

Furthermore, the idea of salvation as “theosis” (“deification, divinization”) that Fr. Daniel shared with me truly flabbergasted me. Fr. Daniel related this Orthodox teaching on “theosis” to the Javanese teaching on “Sangkan Paraning Dumadi” (“The Origin and Destination of Creation”). According to Fr. Daniel, by virtue of the union between the humanity and the divinity in the Incarnation of Christ, the power of death that dwells in the humanity of Christ was defeated and destroyed by His divinity; therefore the humanity of Christ was raised from the dead. Death has been destroyed through His resurrection; while death is caused by sin, therefore sin is also defeated by this same resurrection of Christ. The resurrected body of Christ could not be defeated by death and sin anymore, the undying life of His divinity was now revealed through His resurrected body.

Therefore the resurrected body of Christ is now the source of that undying life, or that eternal life, which is the life of the divinity of Christ Himself, namely the life of God. As the resurrected body of Christ is now imbued with His divine life, therefore that resurrected body of Christ is now “divinized” or became partaker in His divinity, without itself changed into God in its essence.

Those who believe and are united to the death and resurrection of Christ through faith by virtue of baptism are united to this divinized resurrected body of Christ. The resurrected and divinized body of Christ is now in heaven in a glorious form, and those who are united to Christ in His glorious resurrected body through faith expressed in baptism and living the life of Christ in His body, the Church, will receive the same glorification or divinization. What Christ is now in His glorious state; that is what they will become. Therefore Christ is the origin and source of that “eternal life”.

The emphasis on life eternal, reminded me of Javanese mystical insistence on finding “Sejatining Hurip” (“The Essence of Real Life”). From Fr. Daniel’s explanation, I could see how Christ is the origin (“Sangkan”) of the Eternal Life, and Christ is also the “Paran” (“ Destination”) of that Eternal Life. Christ is the essence of Javanese belief in “Sangkan Paraning Dumadi”.

Those are the essence of the high philosophy of Javanese mysticism espoused by the “priyayi” Javanese. But being also raised and brought up in the “abangan” side, I felt the emphasis of meal (I mean – “the Holy Communion”) as being central to Orthodox Christian life, which reminded me of the centrality of the “slametan” common meal ceremony in the “abangan” variant of Javanese culture. In short I felt so overwhelmed by the way Fr. Daniel related Orthodox Christianity to this Javanese oriental belief and culture, and I found nothing alien to my culture as a Javanese in Orthodoxy. It is so natural to my oriental mind, it is so true, it is so beautiful, and it is so Eastern. I do not have to fight against my eastern-ness in the way I am thinking, as I have been trained so far in Protestantism.

I began to think that this was what Fr. Daniel had been struggling with for a long time when he was a student. He had found a Christianity that really caters to his eastern and oriental mind. I rejoiced in the fact that I am the first witness of the coming of this teacher of Orthodoxy among the Indonesians, and I was the first to welcome him. But unfortunately I was not the first to be received into Orthodoxy due to my ties to my work.

In 1990 – 1996 I did not work directly with World Vision Office in Jakarta, but was appointed to be fully in charge of LEPKI as “Regional Office Manager”, so I had to move to Malang City.

In 1995, Fr. Gordon Thomas Walker visited us in Malang with Fr. Daniel Byantoro. Fr. Gordon came to Indonesia to visit Fr. Daniel, his so-called “Indonesian son”, on his way to Damascus to the Patriarchate of Antioch. His visit to Malang City coincided with the Islamic Feast of Eid’ul Fitri that marked the end of Ramadan fast. He said that he was impressed by the hundred thousand of people who prayed together that morning in an open, huge stadium, bowing down to the ground in unison. After the prayer he saw them asking forgiveness from each other, even a to a stranger that they did know, by shaking hands. Fr. Gordon told us that it reminded him of the practice in the Orthodox Church on Forgiveness Sunday before entering the great fast of Lent in preparation of the Feast of Passover/Pascha, where all Orthodox people shake hands and hug, asking forgiveness from each other. He believed that this Islamic practice was taken directly from this Eastern Orthodox practice. He believed that it would be wonderful if all people in the whole world can forgive each other as sincerely, as it was done by these Muslim and Orthodox Christian people.

While in Malang City, Fr. Gordon gave a lecture on Orthodoxy and shared with us his conversion to the Orthodox faith. I had been Orthodox at heart that time, but I was still tied to my work and I could not do anything. Fr. Daniel, however, patiently waited for me, and still visited my family wherever we lived. In 1996 I terminated my contract with LEPKI, and in 1997 I found took more courses in theology at my former seminary of the Indonesian Baptist Theological School for my theological refreshment, while at the same time finishing my thesis for my unfinished study in Korea to get my degree.

While taking courses in the Seminary I joined “Cross Cultural Mission Ministry” for the Sundanese ethnic of West Java, near Jakarta, so I moved again from Malang City in East Java, to West Java. From 1997 to 2000, I was appointed to be the ”Director of Sundanese Cross-Cultural Training Center” by this organization. The name of the organization was “PARI Mission” and it had International Partnership.

During this period, Fr. Daniel opened a new parish (“Aghia Epiphania”) in the city of Jakarta, and he moved to Jakarta; therefore it was easier for him to visit our family. After a long struggle and consideration, especially on the part of my wife, we were officially received into the Orthodox Church in 1998. At this year of 1988 we attended a local Protestant denomination, and upon our being accepted into Orthodoxy, we asked a letter of attestation to change our membership into the Orthodox Church.

Fr. Daniel had long desired for me to help him in the mission for the Orthodox Church, so he asked me if I was willing to be ordained as an Orthodox priest. Fr. Daniel asked me to prepare all the necessary papers to be presented to the overseeing bishop. In 1999, when the bishop visited Jakarta, I was introduced to him at the Church office, and all my papers and documents were given to him. The bishop told me that I was going to be ordained in July. I waited and waited, as did Fr. Daniel, but there was no news and no action until Fr. Daniel’s departure to the United States in 2001. My contract with “PARI” mission organization was over, and there was no news on my ordination, but life had to go on. I had to find other work, and I got a job offer in Malang City again. This time I worked for an organization called “Compassion”, where I had to be responsible for “Child Spiritual Nurturing Program”; I worked for two years, from 2000 to 2002.

To our sadness this was the period of Fr. Daniel’s suffering and difficulties. We expected him to come home in a few months, but each time he called us he informed us that his effort had not given any fruit; it took five years. We felt Fr. Daniel’s difficulties, and we joined in prayer for the successful efforts and Fr. Daniel’s return. My family made the prayer of “Paraklesis” every evening begging for mercy to God for Fr. Daniel.

Fr. Daniel always made long-distance calls from the United States to comfort us and to inform us on what was happening with him in America during this period. In 2004 my contract with Compassion organization was terminated. I got an offer to work as Student’s Dean at Pentecostal Theological Seminary (2002 – 2005). Before I accepted the offer I asked Fr. Daniel’s advice as to whether I should take the offer or not, due to my being a member of the Orthodox Church. Fr. Daniel advised me that since I needed money I should take the offer, but I should be honest that I was an Orthodox Christian to everybody, especially to the Director, and that I was not interested in changing my own faith at all, and that I would not be able to take any Holy Communion in this Pentecostal Church. At first it was okay, but slowly pressure was put on me to leave the Orthodox Church and join Pentecostalism, since nobody knew what happened to Fr. Daniel. Meanwhile Fr. Daniel kept making long-distance to give information and encouragement for my family; during this time we lived in the theological school’s compound.

At last the joyful news came, when Fr. Daniel informed me that he had been successful in finding a bishop that would support his vision for GOI, Archbishop Hilarion of Australia of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. He also informed that I would be ordained soon. After a long struggle and waiting, on March 2005, Archbishop Hilarion made his first visit to Indonesia, and ordained several men, including me, into the priesthood. After my ordination, Fr. Daniel sent me to start a new mission outpost in the city of Salatiga, not far away from Solo. In this city I started to do my ministry as a priest of the St Anthony the Great Orthodox Community. I pray that God will prosper my ministry and His Holy Orthodox Church will be planted deep in this area. Amen.

Source:

I am the oldest son of four brothers and was born on April 24th, 1963, in the city of Boyolali, Central Java. They named me Wiyono, which means welfare and salvation. My parents were officially Muslims, but they leaned more to the “Javanese mystical tradition” (“Kebatinan”) in their religious practices than to official Islam. When I was in 6th grade, they were intensely practicing Javanese mysticism, which is a traditional Javanese mystical belief influenced by animistic, Hindu-Buddhist beliefs along with Islamic sufism. Therefore, I was raised in this Islamo-Javanistic mystical environment when I was a child and, since my father was more intense in this Javanese mystical practice rather than Islamic one, he taught me the same things.

In 1977 there came a Christian evangelist to my village from the city of Rembang, seven hours to the North. He was a former Muslim whose name was Abednego Azhari. This evangelist preached about “Isa Al-Masih” (“Jesus Christ”) to my parents. By their own choice and realization of the truth, at last my parents converted to Christianity and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and were baptized as Pentecostal Christians.

I was opposed to the idea of our house being used for Christian gatherings for worship, but I had to honour my parents and decided not to make trouble for them. I felt that the devil disliked the use of my parent’s home as a Christian place of worship. As a result, I was used by the devil to make trouble, and I threw pebbles and stones whenever they had gatherings for worship. However, to my surprise, they were not angry at me; instead they prayed for my conversion.

Conversion

At that time, I was still in the second year of Junior High School. When I graduated from this Junior High School, an uncle of mine (the half-brother of my father) who had converted to Christianity and had became a Pentecostal pastor, Pastor Thomas Sutomo, took me to live with his family. Slowly, my heart began to soften, and I became a Christian and was baptized by my uncle. Yet I did not know much about good and true Christianity; I felt that I was just a Christian in name only. Still, the bottom line was that I chose to be a Christian voluntarily without being forced by anyone.

This Pentecostal pastor uncle of mine sent me to continue my High School studies. When I was in the third year of my High School days, I developed a serious illness. No one understood the type of sickness I had; even medical doctors could not help me. Then, in the middle of this critical condition, I began to pray to “Isa Al-Masih” (“The Lord Jesus Christ”) requesting His mercy for my healing so that I could attend my High School examination and graduate well.

Praise the Lord that He answered all my petitions to Him! In light of this, I made a vow to God to return His love by becoming a minister of the Gospel in order to be able to serve mankind. I informed my pastor uncle of my decision, but he was sceptical about what I said to him.

Calling

God’s plan did not fail, and I remained unwavering in my resolve to become a minister of the Gospel. So I prayed again to God to send a pastor to help me to realize this calling. At last, God answered my prayer by sending a pastor from Palembang city, Sumatra, who was a former Muslim, Pastor Yepta Alwilius Abdullah. He came to my town to lead a revival meeting in 1983. I confided my desire to become a minister of the Gospel to him, and I was received by him; my pastor uncle gave me permission.

After that, I joined this pastor to preach the Gospel by going around to cities and villages in Central and East Java and other areas. Through these ministries I grew up spiritually, and at last I asked to be sent to Seminary. My pastor uncle sent me to a Bible School for one year, and then I returned to my hometown to help his ministry in the Pentecostal Church. After I completed my obligation to do field work ministry, I yearned to go to Seminary again. Before I was able to go to the Seminary, around the year 1990, I met Fr. Daniel in Solo and in my hometown, Boyolali. Fr. Daniel had been invited to preach in a revival meeting for the youth, and I was chairman of the board members of the organization for the event. Through the preaching and teaching of Fr. Daniel at that time, I came to know Orthodox Christianity a little. But, I had not yet decided to join the Orthodox Church, because my knowledge of Orthodox Christianity was still scanty. I still had strong emotional ties with Pentecostalism, and I had not yet felt the calling to become Orthodox.

As life went on, I never saw Fr. Daniel again, and I decided to continue my study at the Indonesian Evangelical Theological Seminary, the Indonesian branch of Dallas Theological Seminary, outside of Jogyakarta , one hour west of Solo City. For three years I studied at this seminary, which strongly promoted Pre-Millenial and Dispensational theology.

After my graduation I joined the “Indonesian Gospel Gathering Church” (“Gereja Perhimpunan Injil Indonesia”). From 1989 until June, 2004, I was a Pentecostal pastor and also a board member of the denomination’s central board. In 1989, I married my wife, Sri Supatmi, and together we have two sons, Ruben and Beny.

Coming to Orthodoxy

With the passage of time, there were a lot more demands on the ministry. In order to answer these needs and for the spiritual welfare of my congregation, I needed to get my first stratum degree for my theological studies. Thus, I enrolled myself at the Apostolic Theological Higher Institution in the year 2001.

I felt that only God directs this life. I could see this in my life and the life of my family as well in my ministry. Thus, in the year 2003, God moved my heart to go to the Orthodox Church in Solo City and meet Fr. Alexios, the priest of the community. I told him that I had once met Fr. Daniel, and I wanted to learn about the Orthodox faith that came from the Middle East. Fr. Alexios received me cordially, and the seed of Orthodoxy that had been planted by Fr. Daniel in me began to sprout again and slowly grow as Fr. Alexios with patience watered and nurtured it.

My wife and I did not find it boring to learn from Fr. Alexios. Finally I, with my family, decided to become Orthodox Christians. I continued preaching the Gospel and became more confident in my understanding of Christianity because now I was in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Here, in this Church, I received the straight, correct, and true teaching of the Apostles. Soon there were about 22 Church members who expressed their desire to join us in the Orthodox Church. among them my own parents. The peak of this spiritual journey was when, on July 5th, 2004, we were all baptized in the Orthodox Church. On that day, an Orthodox community in Boyolali came into existence, which to this day continues to grow very rapidly.

To my joy, I was informed by Fr. Alexios that Fr. Daniel had decided with the blessing of Archbishop Hilarion to ordain me as an Orthodox priest. This happened because of the recommendation of both Fr. Daniel and Fr. Alexios to His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion. To perfect my preparation for becoming an Orthodox priest, my wife and I renewed our marriage vows in the Orthodox Sacrament of Matrimony, which was conducted by Fr. Alexios in the month of December, 2005. At last, on March 3, 2005, I was blessed into the rank of Reader, then Subdeacon. On March 4th, 2005, I was ordained as a Deacon, and lastly, on March 5, 2005, I was elevated to the Priesthood by His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion.

After my ordination, God fulfilled His promise in that my former evangelist, Pastor Yepta Alwilius Abdullah, and his family, with his Church members, joined the Orthodox Church, and all of them have been baptized in the Orthodox Church.

I pray that those who read this testimony of mine will be blessed by God in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!!

Source:

Born in Vienna, Austria of both European and Slavic backgrounds, Father Seraphim, like most Austrians, was born into the Roman Catholic Church, and always considered the Orthodox Church another side of the same coin. As a young man he immigrated to Australia, eventually taking on the citizenship of his chosen homeland.

It was in this country that he came into contact with the Liberal Catholic Church (derived from the Old Catholic Church of Holland), meeting his future wife, Margaret, at a church congress. After extensive study for Holy Orders under the direction of the late Bishop Sten von Krusientierna, then Regionary Bishop of the Province of Australia, he was eventually ordained a priest serving in various locations in NSW and Queensland for about 11 years.

Conversion

Father Seraphim has always been an avid reader, and when he found an image of the great Russian Saint, St Seraphim of Sarov, in a magazine, he was inexplicably taken by it, so cut it out and placed it in a frame next to his bed. From this time on, grew such a desire to learn more about Orthodoxy that he reached the point of making the most difficult decision of his life: to request release from his ministry in order to join the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church.

With the commencement of the ceremony taking place on St Seraphim’s Day in August of 1987, he, Margaret, and two of their children, their daughters, Leolie Tatiana and Jasmine Mary, were chrismated at the Orthodox Church of the Holy Annunciation (OCA) in Brisbane. Although living about 3 hours’ away, they attended there as regularly as possible, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and occasionally visiting the Serbian and Greek churches. In 1991 the family joined the Antiochian Orthodox Church of St Mary the Virgin in Sydney.

It was also about this time that Father Seraphim’s lifelong studies, interest and involvement in the arts and crafts culminated in his graduating as a studio potter from the College of Art, Lismore TAFE, in 1992.

Ministry in the U.S.

Changes in their lives brought about the decision to relocate temporarily to the United States, and in 1993, Father Seraphim, Margaret and their two daughters now aged 16 and 14 arrived in Nashville. (Their sons were already independent and living their own lives.) The temporary move extended into many more years than originally planned, and both daughters, one with an American born family, eventually moved back to the land of their birth, joining their brothers and their families.

In the meantime, the family was actively involved in the many facets of church life at St Ignatius Antiochian Orthodox Church, even living with the Pastor, Father Gordon Walker and his wife, Kh Mary Sue, for the first two years. Father Seraphim, in particular, not having a work visa, was able to devote considerable time to helping Father Gordon, most importantly, managing the large church bookstore.

Although not able to pursue his love of pottery, he was fortunate enough to be able to participate in several Iconography workshops by Master Iconographers Phil Zimmerman and Ksenia Pokrovsky.

Residing with Father Gordon presented the opportunity to meet and have closer contact with Father Daniel Byantoro, the founder of the Indonesian Orthodox Church, and in 2004, at Father Daniel’s request, Father Seraphim followed him back into the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

In 2005, Father Daniel and Father Gordon (now retired and CEO of Grace Ministries, an important arm of support for Father Daniel’s work), asked Father Seraphim to travel to Jakarta, Indonesia, as Father Daniel’s representative, for the inaugural Archpastoral visit of His Eminence, Archbishop HILARION of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Diocese of Australia and New Zealand and under whose omophorion Father Daniel and the Indonesian Orthodox Church (GOI) had been received the year before. Upon his return to the United States via Australia, Archbishop HILARION raised Father Seraphim to the office of Reader on April 16, 2005, at the Church of All Saints of Russia, in Croydon, Sydney.

(It is interesting to note that there is a personal link to the land of Indonesia, as Margaret’s father was born in Bandung, Java, Indonesia, of Australian and Dutch parents and lived here for the first 13 years of his life. Margaret also looks forward to a closer connection with this country and its people in the future.)

Following that time, Father Seraphim functioned as a Reader at the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, Liberty, Tennessee, under the pastoral direction of Father Gregory Williams.

In 2006, Father Seraphim accompanied Father Gordon Walker to Indonesia once more, to Jakarta and Solo, on the occasion of the second Archpastoral visit of our beloved Hierarch, Archbishop HILARION During that visit he was elevated to the Subdiaconate on February 23, 2006, at The Apostle Thomas Orthodox Church in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ministry in Indonesia

Fr. Seraphim OrdinationAt the end of the same year, Father Seraphim was informed by His Eminence, Archbishop HILARION and Father Daniel, that he was to be assigned to visit Indonesia once again, that he was to prepare for serving the mission there, including his ordination to the Diaconate and Priesthood in Sydney, prior to his traveling.

With fear and trembling, Father Seraphim approached this momentous step in his life, while giving thanks to God that he would once more be able to serve Him at His Holy Altar. On Palm Sunday, 2007, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood at St Vladimir’s Russian Orthodox Church, Centennial Park, Sydney (having been ordained to the Diaconate the previous day at St Peter and Paul Cathedral, Strathfield).

Father Seraphim’s mission and ongoing prayer is to faithfully serve the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church all the days of his life and he looks forward to further serving his beloved brothers and sisters in Indonesia.

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Joseph Muzendi grew up in Papua, and was raised as a Baptist Christian. He had a successful career as a civil servant in the immigration office, something that is nearly impossible to attain in other provinces because of the societal discrimination against Christians. But over the years he began to feel a desire to minister in the name of Christ full time. He left his government position, graduated from a Protestant seminary, and was ordained a Baptist minister. He was assigned to work under an American mission organization on the island of Batam, the northern-most main island in Indonesia, directly south of Singapore.

But his connection to Papua drew him back. In the 1970’s, the government began an aggressive campaign to Islamicize Papua. Over 1,000 Muslim missionaries were sent to Papua, and many entire Muslim families were relocated to Papua. These efforts were particularly directed at the primitive tribes of animists who lived in the more remote parts of Papua, but also at the Christians. Pastor Joseph felt that God was calling him to help strengthen the Christians on Papua against the increasing pressure they were facing to convert to Islam, so he returned and took on the responsibilities of being a pastor in a small Baptist church.

Discovering Orthodoxy

As he worked to help build up the faith of his flock, he began to discover what he felt were the limitations of the Baptist faith. He felt that he could not find enough that was spiritually nourishing to help keep his people strong in the faith, and he began to search for more information about the origins of the Christian faith. Then, in 1997 he found a copy of a book written by Fr. Daniel Byantoro, on the subject of the New Testament Church. As a convert from a Protestant background himself, Fr. Daniel explained that the Orthodox Church was the exact same organization founded by Christ, led by the apostles during the New Testament period, and still very much alive and vibrant today. The book explained the Orthodox understanding of the Holy Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and also some of the practical disciplines of the Apostolic and Orthodox faith: the practice of the prayers of the hours, Divine services, fasting, etc. These themes are almost always of interest to Indonesians everywhere, as they are constantly faced with some very different teachings of Islam on the same subjects.

Fr. Dcn. AthanasiusHaving read the book, around the year 2001 Pastor Joseph contacted Fr. Alexios, the Orthodox Priest at Holy Trinity Church in Solo, and asked about how he could meet Fr. Daniel. Fr. Alexios sent him a number of other books written by Fr. Daniel, further explaining the teachings of the Orthodox Church in Indonesia. Finally, in early 2007, Fr. Daniel was able to go to Papua for the first time ever. He spent two weeks there, in and around the capital city of Jayapura, with its population of around 200,000 people. Fr. Daniel led Bible studies, lectured and taught daily, and visited with numerous groups of Protestant Christians. For two hours every night, he taught on the Orthodox view of eschatology, particularly on the topic of the soul after death. While Protestants focus on dramatic theories about the end times, they have very little understanding about what happens to the individual after his or her own death. He also baptized and chrismated Pastor Joseph and his wife, Dolly, giving them the chrismation names of Athanasius and Parascheva. At that time they were, and still remain, the only known Orthodox Christians in Papua.

Ordination

For the next 10 months, the former Pastor Joseph continued to lead his Baptist congregation of approximately 150 people, and continued to receive a salary from the Baptist church, and to live in the house supplied by the church. However, as an Orthodox Christian, he could not administer baptism and communion, so other Baptist pastors would visit occasionally for that purpose. Needless to say, this whole situation felt extremely awkward, and Pastor Joseph (Athanasius) was more than ready to take the next step, which occurred in December 2007.

Fr. Dcn. Athanasius ordinationDuring the visit of Archbishop Hilarion, Bishop Mark, and the rest of the Moscow Patriarchate delegation, Pastor Joseph came to Holy Trinity Church in Solo to meet the with the Bishops, and to receive ordination to the Diaconate. In anticipation of this event, he had come to Solo one month earlier, and stayed with Fr. Alexios to be taught how to conduct Orthodox services, and after his ordination, he stayed an additional two weeks for further instruction. Also during that trip, Archbishop Hilarion informed him that he had been able to find some funding to allow Fr. Deacon Athanasius to rent a house in Papua, as a place to live, and a place to hold Orthodox services. Already, some of his former Baptist parishioners are now catechumens, and Fr. Dcn. Athansius is now able to more fully share the richness of the Orthodox faith with them, unhindered by any continuing connection with the Baptist church. Current plans are for Fr. Alexios to spend some time in Papua in the near future.

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I was born in the city of Nganjuk, East Java, on February 20, 1971. But I spent my childhood in Jombang City, not far from my birth place. I am the half brother of Fr. Daniel Byantoro; we have the same father but a different mother. I was born of our second mother, and Fr. Daniel was born of the first mother. In his childhood, Fr. Daniel lived with our first mother, his birth-mother, in a different town, half an hour away from my hometown. Jombang is a heavily Islamic City, with a famous Islamic Boarding School that belonged to the family of the third President of Indonesia, the former President Abdul Rahman Wahid, who was a very moderate Islamic cleric. It also has an Islamic University and various Islamic lower and higher educational institutions. Among family and friends I was known as “Wawan”. It was in this Jombang City that I received my education from Kindergarten to High School.

When I was a teen, I had a wide variety of friendships and acquaintances. One of them was a group of friends who were interested in the secret arts of magic, many of which are to be found in most of Indonesia and in almost all countries in the Far East. The city of Jombang is especially famous for that kind of magic, with various “gurus” and their brands of magical and mystical sciences being promoted. I began to learn such a magical science. I found that there were no difficulties and no obstacles during the difficult and arduous periods of learning and training in order to achieve the supernatural and magical power I greatly coveted. At last I achieved the highest ranking among the members of these mystical adepts. Finally, I was promoted to be the instructor and trainer at an Islamic religious boarding school (“pesantren”) to teach this mystical and magical science in order to achieve supernatural strength and power. It was during this time of teaching the mystical and magical art in this Islamic religious boarding school (“pesantren”) that I came across Christianity.

Exorcism & Baptism

In Solo I attended morning worship every day, followed by the teaching given by Fr Daniel. When everyone left the simple Church building of that time, after completing the lessons of the day, I tried my magico-mystical power against Jesus Christ. At that time, the Holy Trinity Church was not yet built; Fr. Daniel used a simple rented house that became the site of the present-day Holy Trinity Church. I stood up in front of the icon-screen, which was made from simple plaited-bamboo material. Actually, it was easy for me to knock it down by simply stomping my feet on the ground and hitting my fist in the air toward the icon-screen, but what happened then was shocking to me. Instead of knocking the icon-screen down, the power of the energy of the air that I sent to the icon-screen bounced back to me, and hit me so hard that I fell on the floor. I went out from the Church, but I still could not believe what had happened. Next, I tried my supernatural power against an electric bulb outside the Church, and it broke into pieces, which meant the power was still there. I entered the Church again, and tried again to knock the icon-screen down, but the same thing happened. Repeatedly I tried, and over and over I was knocked down to the ground.

I began to wonder who this Jesus Christ might be, and more importantly I began to be interested in the icons that at first I thought to be idols. After long pondering, slowly I began to confide to Fr. Daniel that, every time I entered into that simple Church building, I felt that a power left my body and made me feel very weak, but when I came out from the Church, that power returned to me. Immediately Fr. Daniel asked whether I practiced magical arts, and whether I had some magico-mystical power and practiced the chanting of mantras. Having admitted that I did, Fr. Daniel immediately asked me whether I had magical talismans or amulets. I admitted that I had. Fr. Daniel asked me to give the amulet to him. The amulet was in the form of a large belt sewn from a blue cloth that I always wore around my waist. I hesitated to give the talisman to Fr. Daniel, because no one is able to touch the amulets without being knocked to the ground by its sheer power. But Fr. Daniel retorted that no power is above the power of Jesus Christ. I was shocked to see Fr. Daniel did not show any fear at all. With a certain degree of skepticism, I removed the magical belt from around my waist and gave it to Fr Daniel. To my surprise, Fr. Daniel took the amulet without any harm; he could even carry the amulet with his left hand, and nothing happened to him. He threw the amulet down to the floor and stepped on it while calling upon the name of Jesus Christ. Then he took a scissor and cut the belt open, and there were written mantras in Arabic, dried flowers, and other charms inside. Fr. Daniel told me that he had to perform exorcism over me, and I obeyed him. Immediately Fr. Daniel spoke an exorcism prayer over me. I felt as if I were being torn apart. I saw my spirit-guide in panic and begging for mercy, while at the same time I heard the prayer of Fr. Daniel driving out this spirit-guide. I had been used to this spirit-guide, who many times gave me information about what was going to happen. I felt a deep pity for him, but I was powerless. When Fr. Daniel continued his prayer, I felt something snatched away from me, and I collapsed. When I woke up, I felt so weak that I tried to produce the power for a test; nothing was there anymore. Fr. Daniel told me to be baptized immediately for my own protection. I was baptized by Fr. Daniel and continued learning Orthodoxy under his guidance. Fr Daniel taught me the Jesus prayer as a replacement for meditation practices. I was bothered by the fact that, every time I started the Jesus prayer, the experience of my former meditation came back again with the old man clad in a white robe and white head-band appearing and crying for mercy and begging me not to leave him. He was asking for me to return. Daniel told me firmly to ignore this appearance of the spirit and his request for mercy from me. He taught me about the Devil and his cohorts, the demons, and told me very clearly that the old man who had been with me all those times was actually one of these demons. With a very strong effort, I was finally able to fight this demon, and his voice slowly faded away. Of course, it took many months to be freed from the influence of this old man demon.

To America & Back Again

In the year 1995, Fr. Daniel sent me to Ben Lomond, California, in the United States of America, to learn iconography under the guidance of Fr. Luke Dingman. He was one of the members of the former Evangelical Orthodox Church who converted to Orthodoxy along with Fr. Gordon Walker and friends. I stayed in Ben Lomond for a year. In 1996, I returned to Solo and studied in the university, majoring in architecture. In the year 2000, I was invited to Kerala, South India, by Fr. George from Mar-Thoma Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, a friend of Fr. Daniel. In this place, the majority of the people are non-Chalcedonian Orthodox of the Syriac tradition. I lived in the Seminary in Chungam area, in Kottayam City. I painted icons for the Church and taught iconography to the students there. After completing what I was invited for, I returned to Solo, Indonesia, helping the ministry of Fr. Alexios. I married the sister-in-law of Fr. Alexios; my wife is the young sister of his wife, Presbytera Helenni. To our joy, soon a healthy and handsome baby boy named Uriel was born.

From America, Fr. Daniel contacted me, asking me about the calling of my life. I told him that I was interested in the ministry, especially since all this time Fr. Alexios had been training me in theology and liturgical life. At last, when Archbishop Hilarion came to Indonesia, I was one among those ordained by His Eminence. I was ordained by His Eminence on February 19th, 2006, in the Holy Trinity Church, Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. With my ordination, there are now 4 children of my late father, as well as a son-in-law of his, who have been ordained into the priesthood: Fr. Daniel, Fr. Yohannes, their half-brother (and my older birth-brother), Fr. Matthew, myself, and my older brother-in-law, the late Deacon Panteleimon (the husband of my half-sister, Debora). Now, I feel the call of God to approach my former gang members in Sumatra and convert them to the faith while ministering the Lord in their midst. I am waiting for the time when I can leave for Sumatra. For the time being I am serving our new Orthodox Community in the village of Simo, not far from Solo. May God be praised in all things!

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I grew up in an evangelical family who attended the local Methodist church where I was taught that the Bible and prayer are necessary parts of one’s daily life. The spiritual grounding that I received from my evangelical spirituality gave me a good foundation to build on in order to grow into a deeper Christianity. What I found troublesome about the evangelical Christianity of my youth was the watered down theology and the sentimental thread that seemed to run through its spirituality. The evangelical Methodist church that I grew up in taught me absolutely nothing about church history.

When I went off to college, I met some friends who were learning about Reformed theology in a Presbyterian church. Reformed theology is the theology that has been built on the theology of the Protestant Reformer John Calvin and is found today in conservative Presbyterian churches. Reformed theology is very logically rigorous and deeply rational, which I found as an improvement considering the watered down sentimental theology of my youth. I also learned about 500 years of church history that I had heard nothing about in my evangelical days. While my theology seemed to be deeper my spirituality became cold and dry. I also longed for a more historic and liturgical form of worship.

I went to a Reformed seminary in California where my wife and I started attending a Reformed Episcopal Church. It seemed to have some of the things that had been lacking in the Presbyterian Church. The theology was not sentimental and the worship was liturgical and reverent, which was something that was lacking in the Presbyterian Church. They also quoted the church fathers like St. John Chrysostom more than John Calvin. The spirituality seemed to be more alive than the cold Presbyterian spirituality. We really thought we had found our home so I transferred to a Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Louisiana where I graduated. I served an Episcopal parish in El Paso, Texas for one year and a Reformed Episcopal parish in Alpine, TX for 5 years.

Over time I began to realize that there is a plurality of theologies in the Anglican Church and what I believed to be true was not the core of Anglican belief but merely one of many options. I was basically teaching Orthodox theology in an Anglican parish and the more I grew to appreciate Orthodox theology the more I felt like a hypocrite in the Anglican Church. (The high church school of Anglican theology is very close to Orthodox theology, but it is only one of many schools in Anglicanism).

I began to think about the future of my parish in Alpine and thought that the next priest that followed me could be an evangelical Anglican and tear down everything that I had built at Holy Cross in Alpine. I then understood that the parish’s theology was dependent on me rather than the Church and Christ, so I asked the vestry (parish council) if they might consider becoming a western rite Orthodox parish. I also was concerned about the faith of my three children. If they moved away from my little Anglican parish would they find an Anglican parish somewhere else with the same high church theology? I also was dissatisfied with all Anglican attempts at defining the church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic in a way that was consistent with the Nicene Creed. The filioque clause in the Nicene Creed (and the Son) did not sit well with me either as well as many other things. In the end the vestry decided not to pursue Orthodoxy and so I resigned as their priest and Cathy and I left Alpine to pursue Orthodoxy in Alabama where we grew up.

Our family has found the fullness of the Faith that has been “once and for all delivered” in Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has the best of all worlds without the extremes of evangelical sentimentalism or the cold rationalistic theology of the Reformed world. We have found the proper balance of spirituality connected with deep theology which is expressed in Orthodoxy as a faith of the “mind in the heart”. We have discovered a faith that treats Tradition and the Saints as alive rather than dead ideas that existed only in the past. We have been blessed with a Church which believes the best things that we believed as High Church Anglicans but now these beliefs exist at the heart of the Orthodox Church. We now have a faith that we can pass on to our children and hopefully they will pass that same faith down to their children. On February 18, 2006 we were baptized and chrismated as Orthodox Christians at St. Symeon’s Orthodox Church (OCA) in Birmingham, AL.

“We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity: for He hath saved us. “

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Fr. Panteleimon was born into a devout Roman Catholic family on the island of Timor. After graduating from High School, he entered the Roman Catholic Seminary of the Diocese of Kupang, the capital city of West Timor Province (East Timor is separate country now). Here, in this Seminary, was the starting point of his search and his introduction to the Orthodox faith. In the faculty of Philosophy/Theology, he received many lessons on General Church History, which emphasized Medieval Church History. When he began to study the Theology of the Sacraments (Initiations), the late Fr. Dr. Agus Buka, a secular priest, cited many of the teachings of the Eastern Fathers — Athanasius, Basil the Great, and John Chrysostom. It is the term “Eastern Church” that became “the key that opened the Orthodox World.” After this, he worked hard to learn more about this Eastern (Orthodox) Church.

Discovering Orthodoxy

During all this time, the future Fr. Panteleimon lived in a monastery. When he left the monastery due to health problems in the year 2000, he worked in a private company. In the workplace, he came to know an Orthodox sympathizer, Mr. Benedict Kaha, who had a lot of articles on the Orthodox Church in Indonesia. During this time, he read the article for the 1996 Seminar in Hilton Hotel Jakarta, written by Daniel Byantoro. This written material strengthened his desire to know more about Orthodox Tradition, Liturgy and Theology.

In the beginning of the year 2000, the future Fr. Panteleimon found the address of the Orthodox Church in Singaraja City, the island of Bali. This church was started by Fr. Daniel, but was entrusted to Fr. Stephanos Boik Nino, who is at present no longer with Fr. Daniel. He contacted Fr. Stephanos Boik Nino, who happened to be Timorese, like the future Fr. Panteleimon himself. Fr. Stephanos was very happy to welcome him, and urged him to make a stronger effort to search for the Orthodox faith. Fr. Stephanos was a former Roman Catholic priest who converted to Orthodoxy under the hand of Fr. Daniel, and who for awhile was entrusted by Fr. Daniel to be youth director in the Holy Trinity Church in Solo, before he was ordained and sent to Bali to care for the mission there. Phone communication and correspondence between the future Fr. Panteleimon and Fr. Stephanos Boik Nino went on smoothly. The future Fr. Panteleimon received a lot of Orthodox written materials from Fr Stephanos. At last, in the beginning of March, 2003, he traveled two nights by ship from Kupang in Timor Island, to Singaraja city, Bali, in order to experience the life of the Orthodox Community. For one year he learned Orthodoxy in the Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Community in Singaraja City, Bali Island. During this period, finally, he decided to become a member of the Orthodox Church. Therefore, on April 10th, 2004, he was chrismated by Fr. Stephanos in the chapel in Singaraja City. He heard a lot of disheartening information on the situation of the Orthodox Church in Indonesia because of the ecclesiastical political upheaval, but all this information did not deter him from his determination to keep the zeal for Orthodoxy that he had struggled for.

On May 17, 2004, the future Fr. Panteleimon returned to Timor Island. This was the same island where Fr. Daniel had almost been murdered by the local people during an evangelistic visit in December, 2000. Now, for the first time, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Fr. Stephanos at the house of Mr. Ronald Fernandez, a Roman Catholic sympathizer to Orthodoxy.

After this first Liturgy, the future Fr. Panteleimon made an effort to open an Orthodox community in the city of Kupang, but there were many obstacles and challenges. The local people and his own family members accused him of teaching heresy, and he was reported to the police and had to escape for his life. After this, he decided to move to the island of Java, traveling several days by ship and bus.

Calling

In January, 2005, the future Fr. Panteleimon arrived in Surabaya City and went directly to the place of Fr. Yohanes, whom Fr. Daniel had, with the help of Bishop Maximos, invited to the United States along with three other students while Fr. Daniel was still a student in the States. Fr. Yohanes told all sorts of stories and events about the Indonesian Orthodox Church as an orientation for Fr. Panteleimon’s future ministry. This same Fr. Yohanes is now no longer with Fr. Daniel. But, for the next few weeks, the future Fr. Panteleimon helped Fr. Yohanes in his ministry in Surabaya City.

He was appointed by Fr. Yohanes to revive the community in Krian city, which for quite awhile had been without a minister. In the middle of the 1970s, when Fr. Daniel was beginning his conversion to Christianity as a charismatic Christian young man, he opened the area for the gospel. The village had no Christians at that time. Fr. Daniel started preaching the Gospel there. Slowly, a group of people came to the Lord. When Fr. Daniel left for Korea, no one took care of the people there, and they joined Pentecostal Church. On the return of Fr. Daniel as an Orthodox priest, some of these people joined Fr. Daniel again. The people here were entrusted to Fr. Yohanes after his ordination upon his return from the USA, but due to some difficulties, Fr. Yohanes had been unable to continue this ministry. That was the reason that the future Fr. Panteleimon was asked to revive the community in this area. This same community is now served by Fr. Irenaios, who came from within the community and was ordained by Archbishop Hilarion. It was here in Krian City that the future Fr. Panteleimon met Grandpa Mi’un and Mr. Marno, members of the community, and Mr. Tom, a member of the community in the neighboring city of Surabaya. They discussed with him the latest developments in the Indonesian Orthodox Church. He was then introduced to the newly ordained Fr. Irenaios. Through his acquintance with Fr. Irenaios, he was then introduced to Fr. Alexios in Solo. Fr. Alexios informed Fr. Daniel, who was at that time in the States, and Fr. Daniel asked him whether the young man was eligible for the priesthood. After some time, Fr. Irenaios took the future Fr. Panteleimon to St. Thomas in Jakarta, where the newly ordained Fr. Gregory was a pastor. In Jakarta, the future Fr. Panteleimon met the David and Christian Adiningrat family, benefactors of the community.

It was in the beginning of March, 2005, that the future Fr. Panteleimon came to Jakarta. He worked in the company of the Adiningrat’s family while he assisted Fr. Gregory as the Church cleaning-service man. In the meantime, from the USA, Fr. Daniel made a telephone call to him, asking several questions about his background and his calling. When Fr. Daniel returned to Indonesia in November, 2005, he became better acquainted with the future Fr. Panteleimon and requested that the Archbishop ordain the young man, who had already indicated his willingness to be ordained. On March 23, 2006, at the second visit of Archbishop Hilarion to Indonesia, the young man who is now known as Fr. Panteleimon was ordained in Holy Trinity Church in Solo. With the departure of Fr. Gregory to his native island in Manado to start the mission there, Fr. Panteleimon now pastors St. Thomas Church in Jakarta.

Source:

In 1993 I left my village to begin my course of study in the Pentecostal Bible Seminary, where I was instructed in a hybrid theology that combined elements of both Pentecostalism and mainline Protestantism. I returned to my village after graduation, but I found it difficult to practice my ministry while torn between the two theological perspectives. Eventually I derived my own personal synthesis. I began my ministry in the city of Lasem, Central Java, far from home, and then moved to Wonogiri, which is two hours away from the city of Solo.

Finding Orthodoxy

Soon, however, I found himself in disagreement with the Pentecostal pastor whom I was assisting. Questions arose regarding the continuity between own own practices, on the one hand, and, on the other, those of biblical Christianity. The senior pastor told me that, during a visit to the latter’s home village, I had discovered that some of the Pentecostal Christians there had been influenced by an Orthodox missionary—a missionary of a “heretical” church, according to this pastor. In the past I had been exposed fleetingly to Orthodoxy through a high school friendship, a television program, and a newspaper article. Now, in order to investigate the senior pastor’s claims, I visited my parents and attended a study session led by an Orthodox priest at the home of a Pentecostal Christian in the village. After a period of inquiry, I decided to become an Orthodox Christian. My wife and I received the Sacrament of Baptism from Fr. Daniel Byantoro in July 1999.

Leadership & Ordination

Under the supervision of Fr. Yohannes, I, then still a layman, and my wife, Isidora, started an Orthodox community in the village. More and more we became aware of our identity as members of the ancient Christian Church with its unbroken succession of clergy from apostolic times until today. We and our community entered into an ongoing relationship with Fr. Daniel, who maintained communication with us by e-mail and telephone calls from the U.S. It was at his recommendation that I was ordained to the priesthood of the Indonesian Orthodox Church by Archbishop Hilarion in April 2005 at St. Thomas Church in Jakarta.

Today I serve the community of St. Seraphim of Sarov in my native village, Driyorejo. I am also opening new missions in surrounding cities and towns. I pray that the readers of this story “will be driven to search for more on the way to find the real and true Christianity of the Apostles and early Christians.”

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EASTERN ORTHODOX churches are opening their doors to a growing number of converts — former Roman Catholics, Jews, Protestants — any number of people apparently seeking a haven of stability in a society where traditional values often seem to be lost. Converts, including many members of the clergy, cite the beauty and pageantry of their adopted religion’s liturgy and teachings, rites that are believed virtually unchanged since the time of the apostles.

Though the Eastern Orthodox do not keep overall records of converts, Orthodox priests in Connecticut say the numbers are steadily growing. In some cases, they report, entire parishes and their pastors have adopted the faith.

While some congregations view converts as outsiders, others are welcoming them. ”The experience is forcing the Orthodox church to look at itself and take a position, which is good,” said the Rev. Luke Mihaly, pastor of the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church in Danbury. ”It’s a wonderful time to be a priest. There’s a whole new resurgence of interest in the church, and it’s also a discovery for me. As members of the parish learn, I learn.”

Eastern Orthodoxy, which does not recognize papal authority, affirms a belief in Jesus Christ, baptism and the centrality of the Bible. Churches in the Orthodox tradition were part of the Christendom that endured until the 1054 schism separated the Eastern and Western churches.

In the United States, there are numerous ethnic Orthodox churches — Greek, Russian and Romanian among them — swollen in membership toward the end of the 19th century by thousands of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

One of the basic attractions of the Orthodox church is its unchanging nature, said Father Luke. ”Churches are so afraid of losing members that they decide to change to make it easier to stay in the faith,” he said. ”The Orthodox church puts faith before that.”

Robert Paltauf of Brookfield, now a member of Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, was raised in a Roman Catholic family and attended Catholic schools. He served as an altar boy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and as a teen-ager considered becoming a priest. But five years ago, after years of attending both Catholic and Orthodox churches (his wife, Susan, was baptized in the Orthodox faith in 1964), Mr. Paltauf said he decided to join the Russian Orthodox Church. ”It was not an easy decision,” Mr. Paltaur said. ”It took 10 years.”

After studying the history of Orthodoxy, he decided he wanted to be part of a faith that he felt was the most direct descendant of the early Christian church, Mr. Paltauf said. Like many Roman Catholics, he felt uncomfortable with the changes brought about by Vatican II, particularly the use of English, rather than Latin, in the Mass. ”The whole richness of the old Catholic Church is gone,” he said.

Members of the clergy seem particularly frustrated by conflicts over the ordination of women, homosexuality and the divinity of Jesus Christ. More than half the bishops and a large percentage of the clergy of one Orthodox group, the Orthodox Church in America, are adult converts. The Rev. Michael Westerberg, pastor of the Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church in New Haven, said his seminary class of 1975 was the last class in which priests were born into the faith.

The Antiochian Archdiocese, composed mostly of Syrian churches, has received an influx of converts from Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic churches since the late 1980’s.

Episcopalians make up the largest group, said the Very Rev. George S. Corey, vicar of the Antiochian Archdiocese and dean of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sixty percent of the priests in the Antiochian Archdiocese are converts, said the Rev. Timothy Cremeens, formerly a Pentecostal pastor and now a priest at St. George Orthodox Christian Church, in Danbury.

Father Timothy was assistant pastor of the First Assembly of God in New Milford when he began studying Orthodoxy. ”I was taught that any sort of liturgical worship is spiritually dead,” he said. ”I began to read descriptions of worship in the early church and came to understand that liturgy and sacramental worship were part of it. This came as a great revelation to me.”

While the Pentecostal church allows individual interpretation of the Bible, the understanding of the Scriptures in the Orthodox faith is authoritative and as relevant today as it was to the early Christians, Father Timothy said. ”Worship has taken on a totally different meaning for me,” he said. ”It used to be an expression of who I was. Now, it’s God speaking to me and my conforming to Him.”

Churchgoers, disillusioned with religion that resembles social action, are searching for a faith that transcends the present, according to Frank Schaeffer of Newburyport, Mass. Mr. Schaeffer, the son of a Protestant theologian, Francis Schaeffer, is an author and film producer who joined the Greek Orthodox Church seven years ago and edits an Orthodox newspaper.

Mr. Schaeffer was raised in Switzerland in a religious community steeped in the austere dogma of the Reformed Protestant tradition. As a young man, he rebelled against the beliefs of his parents, who were Presbyterian missionaries. His search for a new religion led him to explore Catholicism and the Episcopal Church before converting to Orthodoxy.

”I was longing for a tradition that was bigger than I was,” Mr. Schaeffer said, ”where the priest is not the important person but rather the whole community, and the emphasis is on worship rather than theological exercise.”

At Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church, about a third of the 120 adult members are recent converts, Father Michael said. ”This trend is not well-known,” he said. ”Orthodoxy is America’s best-kept secret.”

The reason, he added, is that Orthodoxy has not done a good job of making itself known.

At the turn of the century and again after World War II, the churches were preoccupied with helping immigrants settle in the United States. The parishes stood at the center of new communities of immigrants, and services were conducted in the languages of various ethnic groups.

By the late 1950’s and early 60’s, the churches were able to divert some of their energy to concerns beyond their neighborhoods. At the same time, a flowering of information about the Orthodox church occurred, as Orthodox theologians wrote texts in English and English translations of older texts became available. Conversions became common in the 1960’s.

In the Greek Orthodox Church, conversions occur most often through marriage, said the Rev. Robert Athas, pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Norwich. The Easter service at Holy Trinity was the setting seven years ago for one of the first dates Daniel Roth of Willimantic had with his wife, Angelike.

Mr. Roth, who was a Roman Catholic, recently converted to the Orthodox faith in order to strengthen his bonds with his wife and three children, who are being being baptized in the Orthodox faith. ”You have to start putting some morals and unity back into the family,” said Mr. Roth. ”If you don’t, you can see where most of this world is going.”

Orthodox churches are divided in their attitude toward converts. People born into the faith tend to perceive Orthodoxy as an extension of their ethnic culture, Father Timothy said. As older members see people of other ethnic backgrounds filling the pews, even as their own children and grandchildren drop out, ”It’s hard for them to let go of the fact that their Arabic identity is diminishing little by little,” Father Timothy explained.

Although families of Eastern European descent still form the foundation of Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, families of Irish, Italian, Austrian, German, Indian and African American origin have also joined. About a third of the 60 adult members are converts. People of Russian background who are discovering their faith for the first time are considered as much converts as those from Protestant churches, Father Luke said.

It takes diplomacy to keep interaction between newcomers and older parishioners running smoothly. Often better educated in the faith than people raised in the Orthodox church, converts are zealous, Father Luke said. ”They want what is Orthodox and try to be Orthodox,” he said. ”They start looking at the way people practice and say it’s not Orthodox enough. It brings a lot of indigestion to parish priests.”

Father Luke tells longtime parishioners to wait until the new members have gone through their growth spurt and mature. ”They have to look within themselves and realize that in God’s time, things will work out,” he said.

The priests agree that conversion is not only a good thing, it is something that must happen. For one thing, it is the imperative of the Gospel. And the churches can no longer rely solely on immigrants and converts through intermarriage to fill their buildings.

”I think conversions have the potential of revitalizing Orthodox Christianity in this country and the world,” said Frank Schaeffer.

”Many people raised in the church have not given serious thought to their faith in a long time,” he said. ”They don’t understand their church as a living faith. Then they see people who have become Orthodox because they choose to be.”

Photos: The Rev. Robert Athas, left, offering a Sunday Mass recently at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, interior above, in Norwich. (Photographs by Joseph Kugielsky for The New York Times)(pg. 1); At Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Norwich, the Rev. Robert Athas, top; Daniel and Angelike Roth and their children, Panayiota, 5, Robert, 3, and 7-week-old Zoe, lighting candles. (Photographs by Joseph Kugielsky for The New York Times)(pg. 29)

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My rant, er, post, is occasioned by, but not limited to, the recent criticisms of the Orthodox Study Bible. But we might as well bring in the criticisms of Ancient Faith Radio, Conciliar Press, and other Orthodox entities fueled by a lot of Protestant convert energies. I am, quite frankly, reeeeeaaaaallllyyy tired of the crap, er debate. I suppose I should expect such crap, er, debates, during Great and Holy Lent since this is the time of year when we Protestant converts to Orthodoxy lose our ever-lovin’ minds and succumb to our inner Protestant critical spirit.

You Protestant converts to Orthodoxy remember those days, right? When we tried to determine whether some other Protestant evangelifundamentaneoorthodox was “really” saved? You know: “when you asked Jesus into your heart, did you really, really mean it, or did you hold a little bit back?” Or when we judged people in terms of their music style. “Oh, that church isn’t very evangelistic or mission-minded. They’re still using outdated hymns.” Or when we judged fellow Christians’ maturity as to whether they were serious Bible readers (i.e., used a wooden English translation like the NASB), or were still “milk-drinkers” (i.e., used a free paraphrase like “The Message”). Or, worse–whether they used one of those heretical gender-equivalent translations.

Oh, the good ol’ days.

But I guesss the good ol’ days are still with us Protestant converts to Orthodoxy, because we’ve simply baptized our critical spirits with our newly acquired Orthodoxy and continue to criticize our fellow (former) Protestant brothers and sisters over form instead of substance. I wonder whether those critics of these “too Protestant” endeavors of the OSB, AFR and Conciliar Press have been Orthodox long enough to really ascertain if the alleged “Protestant forms” of these works are, in fact, prohibitive of substantial Orthodoxy. Forgive me for my impertinence, but I’ve been taught that the substance of Orthodoxy is prayer, fasting, almsgiving, worship at the Liturgy, confession and participation in the Sacraments. But I’ve been taught this by a priest and other clergy who are Protestant converts to Orthodoxy, so maybe I’m imbibing too much Protestant form and not enough Orthodox substance.

And by the way, can my fellow Protestant converts to Orthodoxy please point out to me just when and where this Golden Age of Orthodox Ethos actually existed? It can’t be nineteenth century Russia, because all the icons are too three-dimensional and “Roman.” It can’t be the Byzantine Empire because of all those heretical Emperors manipulating Church Councils and promulgating iconoclasm and monophysitism. It can’t be any of those smaller so-called “Orthodox countries” because surely they were filled with caesoropapism? And goodness knows it has never been North America!

So, maybe this Golden Age of Orthodox Ethos is one of those Protestant convert to Orthodoxy myths. Sort of like the Protestant myth that the founding fathers of America were all evangelical Christians and intended America to be a Christian nation (oops! erastianism!).

Puh-leeez!

Can I ask all my fellow Protestant converts to Orthodoxy who are spending inordinate amounts of online time criticizing other Protextant converts to Orthodoxy to stow it? None of us have been Orthodox long enough to be allowed to have an Orthodox opinion about anything. (I’m sure there’s an Ecumenical Council somewhere that has a canon for just this sort of thing.) Shut up and pray is probably good advice for us all.

Happy Lent, everyone.

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