Gerakan Gereja Metro di Amarasi Kupang NTT

Abstract

Since decades ago numbers of new religious movements or new Christian denominations have increasingly emerged in Indonesia. The emergence of them has resulted in tension with some mainstream religious communities. They are seen as religious setcs and social deviation. Therefore sometimes they are in jeopardy. Government and society can not accept them as recognized religions. In East Nusa Tenggara Province there have been more than forty Christian denominations living together. One of these is Metro Seventh-Day Adventis Church. The denomination has emerged since 2006 affected by the problem of leadership and management among the Seventh-Day Adventis Church leaders in Kupang. This problem resulted in a conflict between church leaders in Kupang and ordinary peoples in Amarasi. The conflict provocated some Seventh-Day Adventis congregations in Amarasi to declared a new religious institution, called Metro SeventhDay Adventis Church (Gereja Adven Hari ketujuh Metro) This article shows that the emergence of Metro Seventh-Day Adventis Church is a kind of sociological phenomena. In the name of their identity, numbers of ordinary people who are living in rural area have resisted domination of the church leaders in Kupang. Therefore, Metro Seventh-Day Adventis Church is not a sect in terms of theological notion but a social movement by a religious democratic society.