Once designed to hold services for the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin congregation, the building has been left untouched after it was denied a building permit and sealed off by authorities in 2010, reportedly due to public pressure. Its yard is now overgrown with wild grass and plants so tall that Suwito sometimes trims them before they reach the roof, he said.

“A church is not supposed to look like this,” Suwito told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. “Once we even found a really big snake there.”

For Suwito, Sunday services have been a bit unusual for years -- they had moved from house to house just to be able to hold church services. That sense of longing to gather, Suwito said, grew with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing them to join live-streamed services.

“We as Christians need a place to gather, we need that communal sense of belonging,” he said.

Suwito and other GKI Yasmin members swallowed another bitter pill after Bogor Mayor Bima Arya moved forward with a relocation arrangement to settle the prolonged dispute between the congregation and locals opposing the church’s construction.

Bima met on Sunday with leaders of GKI Pengadilan -- administratively the mother church of GKI Yasmin -- to hand over grant documents for land where GKI Yasmin can relocate. The 1,668 square-meter plot of land is 1 kilometer from the sealed GKI Yasmin building.