Gereja Di Agimuga Menyatukan Warga Pasca Peristiwa 1977

Jubi --- Kehadiran 4 gereja baru di Paroki Agimuga diharapkan mampu mengobati trauma akibat peristiwa Hak Azasi Manusia (HAM) tahun 1977 di wilayah Agimuga. Sebab peristiwa tersebut telah membuat warga sipil Agimuga hidup terporak-porandakan kurang lebih 34 tahun lamanya.

Demikian diungkapkan tokoh masyarakat Kampung Amungun Distrik Agimuga, Johan Anggaibak. ”Dulu penduduk semua tersebar menempati kampung-kampung ini,” ujarnya berkisah. Diantaranya Kampung Kiliarma, Amungun dan Aramsolki Distrik Agimuga Kabupaten Mimika. Namun akibat peristiwa pelanggaran HAM tahun 1977 warga semua mengungsi.

”Waktu itu ada penduduk yang ke hutan, ada yang ke gunung dan ada yang ke kota Timika,” jelasnya. Lebih lanjut operasi militer yang dilakukan aparat keamanan yang rata-rata bersenjata tersebut sangat keji. Mulai dari penyiksaan fisik, hingga tembak di tembak. Akibat Operasi militer tersebut juga, sejumlah rumah dibakar bersama penghuninya. Sejumlah pesawat dioperasikan untuk menembak dari udara termasuk membuang racun dan bom di sekitar rumah warga dan di lokasi pengungsian.

”Sejak itu, warga kampung (wilayah Agimuga-red) tidak pernah kembali. Sekarang mereka kembali karena ada peresmian gereka Katolik di 3 kampung ini,” jelasnya. Pasca peresmian gereja oleh Uskup Keuskupan Timika, banyak warga dan keluarga korban telah menyatakan bersedia kembali ke kampung halamannya.

Hal senada juga diungkapkan tokoh masyarakat Amungme di Timika, Thomas Wamang. ”Memang setelah kejadian tahun 1977, banyak yang tidak mau kembali ke Agimuga. Tapi belakangan saya ikuti kemauan masyarakat, mereka mau kembali ke kampung asalnya (di Agimuga),” terangnya.

Sebenarnya, wilayah Agimuga adalah wilayah bertanah subur yang cocok untuk pertanian dan perkebunan dan  berpotensi menjadi daerah maju bagi suku Amungme dan warga suku sekitarnya.

Terkait dengan rencana pergerakan masyarakat dari kota ke kampung tersebut, sumber lain mengatakan, wilayah tersebut akan dimekarkan menjadi satu kabupaten baru yaitu Kabupaten Agimuga, seperti yang sering dikampanyekan oleh Bupati Mimika Klemen Tinal, sebagai salah satu calon gubernur Papua pada periode pemilihan Gubernur 2011 hingga 2016 mendatang. (Welly)

ANDREAS KOGOYA: SECRETARY GENERAL THE FELLOWSHIP OF BAPTIST CHURCHES OF PAPUA DIED WHEN HE WAS 43 YEARS OLD

Andreas Kogoya was born in District Magi, Lanny Jaya regency. He was the eldest of three brathers and one sister. His father named Wene Kogoya and his mother Wakerkwa (late). After completing elementary school (SD) and Secondary School (SMP) in District Magi, he went to continue his school on senior high school, in Wamena, the capital of Jayawijaya regency, and then Andreas continue his college at the Baptist Theological Institut in Jayapura, capital of West Papua province. Then married with three sons of Charles Man Kogoya (12), Endrikus Kogoya (7) and Krisman Kogoya (5). Andreas in addition to being the Secretary General on Papua Baptist Church, and also serviced at Hill Wachno Church Baptist in Kotaraja, Jayapura, West Papua. He was died on May 6, 2011; at 02,30 AM at the Abepura Hospital, Jayapura, West Papua. He was died after he got coronary for a week.

Since childhood, Andreas Kogoya actives in church. He actives on Sunday school and youth of Baptist church in the District Magi, in Wamena city and in Jayapura city. After graduating at Baptist Theologi Institut, he was working as a Costar’s at the Centre Office of Papua Baptist Church in Kotaraja, Jayapura-Papua, and then he trusted to handle incoming and outgoing mail in the leadership of Andreas Yanengga (Former Chairman of the Papuan Baptist Church from 1990 to 2002). Later he was appointed a second assistant general secretary of the Baptist church of Papua in the leadership of Andreas Yanengga. Then in a period of Socratez Sofyan Yoman leadership as Chairman of the Papuan Baptist Church, Andreas was appointed General Secretary since 2002-until now.

His dedication serviced at Baptist Churches in Papua was very good, he was very sincere and diligent works, serving the Lord until the end. His father testified that Andreas since childhood until he died, he was never angry, making his parents heartache. He was a very meticulous in his work. He has done well and ended the game well too. Although as human beings should be recognized that there must be common mistakes made intentionally or not, but the Lord Jesus said that I have to forget your mistakes and have forgiveness your sins. We believed that the Words, God said to him and for us too. You are giving us, you also take it from us, praised the Lord. The struggle had left the service will remain our forward. Presumably at this time, Andreas with you in Heaven.

On behalf of the Papuan Baptist Churches say sorry on the passing of a servant and the servant of Jesus.

Reported by Pares L.Wenda
Staff
May 6, 2011.

ANDREAS KOGOYA: SEKRETARIS UMUM PERSEKUTUAN GEREJA-GEREJA BAPTIS PAPUA MENINGGAL DALAM USIA 43 TAHUN

Andreas Kogoya Lahir di Distrik Magi, Kabupaten Lanny Jaya. Dia adalah anak sulung dari 4 bersaudara. Tiga orang laki-laki dan 1 perempuan. Ayahnya bernama Wene Kogoya dan Ibu-nya Wakerkwa (alm). Setelah menamatkan Sekolah Dasar (SD) dan Sekaloh Menengah Pertama (SMP) di Distrik Magi, kemudian melanjutkan SMA, sekolah menengah atas di Wamena, Ibu Kota Kabupaten Jayawijaya, Andreas kemudian melanjutkan sekolahnya di Sekolah Tinggi Theologi Baptis di Jayapura, Ibu Kota Provinsi Papua. Kemudian Menikah dan dikaruniai 3 orang putra yaitu Charles Man Kogoya (12), Endrikus Kogoya (7) dan Krisman Kogoya (5). Andreas selain menjadi Sekretaris Umum pada Gereja Baptis Papua, Andreas juga mengembalakan Jemaat Gereja Baptis Bukit Wachno, di Kotaraja luar-Jayapura, Papua Barat. Andreas meninggal dalam usia 43 tahun karena serangan jantung di rumah sakit umum Abepura setelah ia dirawat selama seminggu

Sejak kecil Andreas Kogoya aktif di gereja. Dalam kegiatan sekolah minggu dan pemuda gereja Baptis di Distrik Magi, di Wamena dan di Jayapura. Setelah tamat sekolah tinggi theologi baptis bekerja sebagai koster di Kantor Pusat Gereja Baptis Papua, kemudian ia dipercaya menangani surat masuk dan keluar di masa kepemimpinan Andreas Yanengga (Mantan Ketua Gereja Baptis Papua 1990-2002). Kemudian ia dipercaya menjadi asisten sekretaris umum gereja baptis Papua pada masa kepemimpinan Andreas Yanengga. Lalu dalam masa kepemimpinan Socratez Sofyan Yoman sebagai Ketua Gereja Baptis Papua, Andreas dipercaya menjadi Sekretaris Umum sejak 2002-sampai sekarang.

Dedikasi dalam pelayanan di Gereja Baptis Papua tidak diraguhkan lagi, orangnya sangat tulus dan rajin bekerja, melayani Tuhan sampai akhir hayatnya. Ayahnya bersaksi bahwa Andreas sejak kecil sampai dengan ia meninggal, ia tidak pernah marah, membuat orang tuanya sakit hati. Ia orang yang sangat teliti dalam pekerjaannya. Ia telah melakukan pertandingan dengan baik dan mengakhirinya dengan baik pula. Meskipun patut diakui bahwa sebagai manusia biasa pasti ada kesalahan-kesalahan yang dibuatnya baik sengaja maupun tidak, namun Tuhan Yesus berkata Aku telah melupakan kesalahan-kesalahanmu dan telah mengampuni dosamu. Demikianlah Andreas. Engkau yang memberi, Engkau pula yang mengambilnya dari kami terpujilah NamaMU. Perjuangan pelayanan yang ditinggalkannya akan tetap kami teruskan. Kiranya saat ini, Andreas bersama Engkau di Sorga.

Atas nama Persekutuan Gereja-Gereja Baptis Papua mengucapkan turut berduka cita atas kepergian seorang hamba dan pelayan Jesus.

Dilaporkan oleh:

Pares L.Wenda.

May 6, 2011.

A BWA reflection on the family

May 3, 2011

For Immediate Release

Washington (BWA)--In the historic Judeo-Christian tradition, the family is ascribed a place of great significance whatever the location of the society in which it is found. Celebrated attempts have been made to destroy the bonds of family but with little or no success. Notwithstanding this, the question of the form the family should take has not admitted unanimous agreement whether in Jewish or Christian circles. One reason is that the family takes its shape in the social context in which it exists. For many years, some have assumed that the normative form the family should take derives from what was sometimes referred to as "the British tradition" and its Greco-Roman precedents. The so-called "nuclear family" would include a man and a woman, united in publicly attested bonds following socially sanctioned mores enjoying legal recognition. Children - offspring of the husband and wife - would complete the family unit. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when missionaries took the Gospel to lands far away from their own, they tended to assume that the form of family they had in their home country was to be replicated by the people who would become the benefactors of their "civilizing" efforts. To complicate the situation was the fact that, in some of the situations in which the missionaries served, sections of the civilizing party actually owned human beings and counted these as part of their property. As property belonging to another, these enslaved persons were not entitled to benefit from the protection of the state in the matter of family relations. The result is that the enslaved developed patterns of cohabitation that differed from those of their "masters." With emancipation, what was to be the socially approved situation with the family of the formerly enslaved? In some cases, churches that once accepted into leadership enslaved men who lived with their female partners and children started to require these leaders to participate in the traditional marriage rituals formerly allowed only to their overlords. Forty years ago, Barbadian social and cultural historian, Edward Kamau Braithwaite, popularized the recorded exchange between a missionary and a church leader over justification for the leader suddenly being considered unsuitable to continue to hold office because his recent emancipation from slavery required him to mimic the marital customs of his former oppressors. In the Caribbean, beginning in the 1970s, politicians have collaborated to arrive at definitive answers to the question of the forms the family may take. The result has been a raft of legislations to ameliorate the adverse position of persons living in households in so-called "Common Law Unions." Some people once felt that determining admissible structural forms for human cohabitation that are not based on canonized social conventions is a most challenging undertaking. Is it possible that today far more difficult issues arise whose resolution will take many decades and perhaps even centuries. Many will not dispute the church's responsibility to support the family, recognizing, for example, the contribution of the family to the spiritual formation of people in community. Not surprisingly, the 1989 BWA General Council approved a motion to encourage Baptists throughout the world "to acknowledge and endorse anew the need for the home and the family to be deeply rooted in the Christian faith." When the General Council met again in 1994, the International Year of the Family, the BWA passed a resolution acknowledging that "since family life is under threat in all cultures, Christians must ensure effective marriage preparations, teach family members to communicate with each other, provide relevant models of parenting and benefit from the older generation of Christians."

Shattered but Revived

In Matthew's account of the trial of Jesus, one memorable moment the evangelist captures presents Pilate washing his hands (Matthew 27:24). The governor's wife had sent him word of a warning she had received in a dream and Pilate appears to have wanted to avoid having anything to do with Jesus.

Throughout the passion narrative, Matthew depicts Jesus as the person in control of the situation. Our Lord is accused, arrested, sentenced, and crucified, but none of this comes as a surprise to the one who comes with royal splendor to accomplish the will of the Father.

Pilate appears to have decided to use the provision of a paschal amnesty as a means of freeing himself from the difficult bind in which he found himself. When this strategy failed, Pilate washed his hands, in a gesture aimed at creating distance between himself and Jesus' sentence of guilt.

Whatever the reason for Pilate's action - and speculations are many - the governor was unable to evade responsibility for what he had done. He, too, had a share in the guilt of those who desired, and made possible, the execution of the Messiah.

Many are the situations in which we may face the dilemma of making difficult choices. Yet, there is no escaping responsibility for the decisions we make. The complex challenges of the decision-making process - developing an accurate definition of the situation, clarifying the loyalties informing our values, applying sound reasoning, and so on - do not release us from responsibility for the choices we make.

Jesus' refusal to choose the path of self-defense did not make Pilate's dilemma any easier. His majestic silence bespeaks his resolute decision to do the will of the Father.    In the circumstances, Jesus decided to remain loyal to his Father, whatever the cost. As it turned out, our Lord faced the terror of the cross. He suffered the death of a criminal!

Yet, suffering does not have the last word when we are guided by the Holy Spirit to make hard choices. On Easter day, Jesus rose from the dead unveiling for our benefit that, sometimes, sovereignty is mediated through brokenness.

When we have to make painful decisions, we may need to remember that, in the end, the purity of our motives and the defensibility of our actions may be vindicated.

Easter reminds us that, from the crucible of harsh choices, we may rise with confidence and joyfully take hold of the future that God unfolds before our eyes. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus reveals that life trumps death and truth shines brightly when, by the grace of God, we refuse to avoid the path of costly discipleship.

Neville Callam

General Secretary

Baptist World Alliance 

North American Baptists condemn burning of Qur'an

April 13, 2011

Washington (BWA)--Baptists in North America have condemned the burning of the Qur'an by an American pastor in the state of Florida.

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, burned a copy of the Qur'an on March 20 following a mock court trial presided over by its pastor, Terry Jones. The burning of the Qur'an led to protests by Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere, leading to loss of life, injury, and property damage. 

The church had previously backed down from a threat to burn the Qur'an on September 11, 2010.

George Bullard, general secretary of the North America Baptist Fellowship (NABF), one of six regional fellowships of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), has condemned the Qur'an burning, declaring that the "book burning was obviously carried out by a pastor and congregation on the fringe of Christianity, and not within its core."

The BWA Regional Secretary for North America maintained that "a basic tenet of Christian civility is mutual respect for all of humankind, their deeply held faith perspectives, and that which they consider holy; such as their holy books."

Bullard went on to say, "while as Christians we consider the Bible to be the record of the authoritative, inspired Word of the Triune God, we do not live out the spirit of God's Word if we support or are silent about the burning of books like the Qur'an. Such actions sadden Baptist Christians everywhere, and provide an opportunity to express the love of God for all people; especially our Muslim brothers and sisters."

American Baptist Churches (ABC) USA also decried the book burning. Their General Executive Council, made up of national and regional leaders, and which met in Orlando, Florida, in early April, called the Qur'an burning the desecration of a sacred text that violates "the Great Commandment of Jesus to love God wholly and the neighbor as ourselves."

The group, also a BWA member body, indicated that the burning of the Qur'an "is not representative of the larger American Christian community, is an act that we deplore and causes us to reaffirm our historic Baptist commitment to religious liberty for all people and all faiths."

The ABC USA statement avers that "in our religiously diverse world we believe it is vitally important that we all reach out to each other with respect and openness to advance mutual understanding and cooperation among faith communities."

Concern for immigrants

April 6, 2011

Washington (BWA)--The Baptist World Alliance invites its members to exercise continuing concern for the status and treatment of immigrants worldwide. This is not surprising, considering the organization's long history of committed action of settling immigrants in their new countries. After the Second World War, the BWA encouraged the United States government to adjust immigration quotas to allow displaced persons from Europe to come into the country. In the face of opposition from American anti-immigrant groups, who feared that the new immigrants would become a "public charge," the BWA helped to settle more than 5,700 displaced Europeans in the US and 1,700 in Canada between 1949 and 1953. Similar assistance was given to Cuban and Angolan refugees in the 1960s, with the BWA helping nearly 500 Cubans settle in the US by 1962. The undiminished BWA concern for the welfare of immigrants was given expression in a 2008 resolution, bemoaning the "array of cultural, linguistic and economic burdens" faced by immigrants whose presence sometimes "generates political situations of great sensitivity, fear and misunderstanding in host and home countries alike." Because of the parlous state of millions of immigrants around the world, the BWA has urged nations to develop transparent and equitable systems of migration that treat applicants with dignity; to administer laws and regulations with justice and fairness to citizens and immigrants alike; and to renounce xenophobia and the misuse of immigration for political repression and division. The BWA encourages its member bodies to instill an ethic of love that reaches across ethnic, gender and political boundaries; to act as advocates for migrants; to develop ministries of reconciliation and integration; and to freely share resources with those in need. BWA concern for immigrants is based on the understanding that human beings are "fellow sojourners in this world" and the conviction that the way we treat the immigrant in our midst is a sign of the authenticity of our faith. In its 2008 resolution, the BWA affirms a "scriptural mandate to live in love and justice with refugees and immigrants." Baptist pastor and theologian, Delroy Reid-Salmon, in Home Away From Home (2008), says many immigrants seek "a community of faith to which they could belong as members." Churches, Reid-Salmon explains, are sometimes the only social organization in which immigrants can become easily assimilated. This provides a unique opportunity that churches should cherish.

As Baptists, we should remain true to our historical roots, both as immigrants - many Baptists migrated to places where they could practice their faith in freedom - and as hosts who are ready to welcome others.