Paradosis

January 11, 2006

Additional Prayers for the Orthodox Church in Indonesia

I recently received news from my priest that Fr. Daniel Byantoro and the Orthodox Christians in Indonesia have recently experience an increase in violent threats. Fr. Daniel has said that the persecution waxes and wanes, but readily admits there is little religious freedom in Indonesia for religions other than Islam.

Anyway, here is the story as I received it:

Yesterday, a group of over 200 radical Muslims came to the compound where the church of St. Thomas is located. They surrounded the compound with the intent of burning the church down. (Fr. Daniel also lives within the compound walls.) The owners of the factory located in the compound think that they were able to persuade the radicals to leave the property alone. They had to agree not to worship in the compound.

And so now it appears that Fr. Daniel and his parishoners are forced to serve the Liturgy in their homes (see, my po-mo friends, how flexible we Orthodox are...we can be House Churches when neccesary, just like the early church when it faced bouts of persecution!)

In any event, please keep the Indonesia Christians in your prayers.