As the members of the Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI) Taman Yasmin church in Bogor and the Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) Filadelfia from Bekasi were assembled for a joint Christmas service on Friday afternoon, a special red chair remained vacant.

For the two West Java-based chuches, it was the fourth open-air Christmas service since 2012 held across from Merdeka Palace, where the President lives.

What sets this year'€™s service apart from the previous ones is the special red plastic chair, prepared for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. The chair was placed on the front-ride side of the sitting area, near the choir and musicians'€™ tent.

GKI Yasmin spokesman Bona Singgalingging said they had prepared the chair so that the President could join their Christmas service at the open venue.

The congregations had also sent official invitations to Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo and Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin.

"On Dec. 4, we sent the official invitations to the President, Pak Tjahjo and Pak Lukman, hoping that they would come. But no one showed up, not even a representative," Bona told reporters, after the Christmas service ended on Friday afternoon.

The open-air services in Jakarta are also a form of protest amid unresolved administrative disputes that have been going for the last five years and that have seen the congregations locked out of their church buildings.

According to Bona, the Jokowi administration is more inclined to listen to their concerns than Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (SBY) administration was. "The progress now is that they're being more attentive. During SBY's tenure, they would directly go into defense mode."

Nevertheless, the government has so far failed to follow up with concrete action a Supreme Court ruling in support of GKI Yasmin's church building permit and a recommendation by the Ombudsman related to the cases of both GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia.

In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the GKI Yasmin congregation has the right to build a church in the area. However, Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto refused to issue a permit for the building, and the church was sealed in 2010.

Since then, GKI Yasmin has been holding its Sunday services outside.

The story of HKBP Filadelfia started in 2011 when the Bekasi municipal administration sealed off the church site after local residents had objected to its construction. Even though the Bandung State Administrative Court ruled in favor of the church'€™s right to exist, the administration refused to reopen the site.

Bona recalled that the congregation has been holding 107 Sunday services, or once every two weeks since February 2012, across the Merdeka Palace. He went on saying that Bogor Mayor Bima Arya still insisted on relocating the GKI Yasmin church to another site in the city.

In August, during a meeting between GKI Yasmin representatives and Bogor the administration, which was moderated by the Indonesian Ombudsman, Bogor Mayor Bima Arya Sugiarto conveyed two messages.

First, GKI Yasmin'€™s church would be closed and relocated to another place. Second, the relocation resulted from an agreement between the Bogor administration and GKI Pengadilan, out of which GKI Yasmin emerged.

GKI Pengadilan, the first Protestant church in Bogor, was built in the late 1960s. As the congregation grew, a need arose for new churches. A group of GKI Pengadilan members then bought a piece of land in 2006 to construct a new church.

Hoping on Jokowi

Under the blazing sun at 2 p.m., more than 200 members of GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia gathered for Friday's Christmas service. Many were using umbrellas and caps to protect themselves against sunstroke.

The sermon during that Christmas service was very contextual, as Pastor Benget Tambunan of GKI Ampera referred to the latest "Dad is asking for shares" case, allegedly involving former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto.

"We reject dad asking for shares, because he forgot that many children are unable to go to school. Because he forgot that there are mothers who must work, to find clean water in many area. We reject efforts to put ones personal interests first and accumulate wealth, because natural resources are for the nation," Pastor Benget said.

The sermon was followed by Christmas songs. Teenage members of HKBP Filadelfia sang "Jingle Bell Rocks" and "Feliz Navidad", a bit awkwardly by reading the lyrics from their phones and papers.

Julida, a woman in her mid-forties and member of HKBP Filadelfia, has joined the Sunday service across from Merdeka Palace four times.

"I join the struggle here so that our church seals will be removed soon," said Julida, whis is from Tambun, Bekasi.

Bona said they were still hoping for the government to enforce the Supreme Court ruling.

"The President, whoever he is, must remember that regional leaders are not kings of small kingdoms. Our eligible church is still sealed. We still put our hope in him [Jokowi]," Bona said.

Ending a solemn service, Pastor Benget said GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia had become the struggling symbol of the country's minority groups, in an effort to be treated as Indonesian citizens and with their citizen rights to be respected.

"Because of that ['€¦] celebrate Christmas, share the joy, stand upright, you and I are citizens of this country. We deserve the freedom, we deserve a right to pray, and we deserve to be treated equally," he said.

Using a football analogy, Bona said that they needed a leader who would take the ball, dribble it and then score a goal.

"What's the goal? Having the Supreme Court ruling and Indonesian Ombudsman recommendation implemented. That is what we're waiting for and what the current leadership hasn't delivered on in this case of religious freedom," Bona added.

When the Christmas service ended at around 4 p.m., the area in front of the National Monument (Monas) complex became empty. Chairs were already being picked up, and the members left one by one.

They promised to hold another Sunday service on Jan. 3, 2016 across from Merdeka Palace even if it rains, and to continue to do so until they could pray inside their own churches.

"If the rain falls, we'd stay. We won't run away from our struggle," another pastor said during this Christmas service. (ags)

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