The Protestant Church in Western Indonesia ( id, Gereja Protestan di Indonesia bagian Barat, abbreviated as GPIB) is a Reformed Church, and its theology is based on the teaching of John Calvin. It was established on 31 October 1948. It was called the "''De Protestantse Kerk in Westelijk Indonesie''", founded in 1605 in

Ambon Ambon may refer to: Places * Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia ** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province ** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796 * Ambon, Morbihan, a c ...

Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...

. In its formative years it consisted of seven classes: Jabar,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

, Jatim, Sumatra, Bangka,

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

, Sulawesi. It is a member of the

World Communion of Reformed Churches The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Calvinist churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Chris ...

the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

and the Christian Conference in Asia.

Statistics

The denomination has 600,000 members and 300 congregations and 430 pastors in 2006. It is a national multi-ethnic church, scattered over 25 out of the 32 provinces of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The denomination is one of the biggest Protestant churches in

and is part of the

Protestant Church in Indonesia The Protestant Church in Indonesia is a Reformed church; it is a member of World Communion of Reformed Churches. Origin The Protestant Church in Indonesia was formed in Ambon, Maluku in 1605 under the name of the Protestant Church in the Netherla ...

. According to the recent statistics the church is growing rapidly, has 1,305,000 adherents and members. The Synod Office is located in Jakarta.

References

External links

Official website
1948 establishments in Indonesia Calvinist denominations established in the 20th century Members of the World Communion of Reformed Churches Reformed denominations in Indonesia Religious organizations based in Indonesia Christian organizations established in 1948 {{Indonesia-stub