The priest, SAR, had been known for his initiative to provide a halfway house for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, survivors of the 1965 communist purge and former Papuan political prisoners, which is in line with the church’s role as a progressive enclave.

In 2018, the Post wrote an article about his endeavor to build a halfway house and he was also one of the Post’s sources for news pertaining to Papuan political prisoners who were jailed in the National Police’s Mobile Brigade prison in Depok, West Java, last year.

However, GKA accused SAR of committing sexual misconduct. GKA formed an ad-hoc investigation team to trace the allegations in a victim’s report the church had received.

“[SAR] had violated the principle of loyalty in a Christian marriage, involving psychological manipulation and the use of power relations while serving as pastor,” the church stated in a public statement on Tuesday.

The church, which was established in 2013 and had dozens of congregants, also accused SAR of public deception with his clergyman status, as he failed to prove the validity of his ministerial and academic titles.

According to one of the church’s congregants, Rinto Pangaribuan, SAR had claimed that in the Reformed Baptist tradition, a pastor was appointed by the congregation, and SAR said he was appointed by the first GKA congregation.

“However, he could not provide legitimate evidence that such a method of designation was proper. We requested AD/ART [rules of association and internal bylaws], but he only provided a confession of faith, which is just a theological interpretation,” Rinto told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

SAR had also claimed to hold academic degrees from Reformed Baptist schools in London and Malaysia. The institutions told GKA that they had never issued a degree to SAR, Rinto added.

SAR told the Post over the weekend that the accusations from GKA were based on an “anonymous letter” sent to GKA and he denied all the allegations. He said he had proven that all the allegations were wrong but other GKA congregants did not accept his explanations. He claimed that he resigned and was not dismissed without honor. He said he would take any "constitutional" steps to clean his name, including reporting GKA congregants to the police.

“I have no idea what [SAR] meant by anonymous letter, but if he was referring to my report containing the chronology of my case [against him], it is not anonymous. I sent a report containing the chronology and his inappropriate conduct toward me as a pastor to GKA and to the National Commission on Violence Against Women [Komnas Perempuan]. I wrote only the truth in that report,” one of the pastor’s alleged sexual abuse victims told the Post on Friday.

The GKA congregation also suspected SAR of manipulation and abuse of authority when managing funds from outside donors for the renting of the GKA Secretariat on Jl. Salak, Setiabudi, South Jakarta, which he turned into a halfway house.

SAR had provided another halfway house on Jl. Malabar, near the secretariat, according to Surya Anta, one of six activists found guilty of treason for holding a protest in support of Papuan independence last August –later named the Jakarta Six.

Surya said he had lived in one of the halfway houses for three weeks upon his release this year, along with two other members of the Jakarta Six, namely Dano Tabuni, who lived there for six months, and Ambrosius Mulait, who is currently still living there with his wife.

“[SAR] lived at the secretariat with his wife. Some ex-1965 prisoners have also lived in the facilities, but I never saw LGBT people living in either house,” Surya told the Post.

The church reported that assisting Papuan political prisoners in the halfway houses had been SAR’s personal project, but he had “directly or indirectly involved the name of GKA along the process.”

Meanwhile, the church added, SAR and his wife had secretly managed the funds collected for his project without the knowledge of GKA’s treasury office.

Surya said he and his friends had received about Rp 15 million from SAR himself last year when they were still in prison. Later, Surya learned that two humanitarian groups had given about Rp 39 million for the political prisoners and their families through SAR himself and his wife's bank account. He said there could be more than Rp 39 million because he learned that individuals had also told Surya they transferred some money to SAR wife’s account. The money was supposed to support the families of the prisoners during their time in jail.

Former GKA treasurer Bhagaskara Prakosa told the Post that money for GKA activities from outside donors and individuals came through SAR’s wife's bank account, to which he, as treasurer, did not have any access. He said GKA members demanded transparency from the couple and gave the couple a Dec. 6 deadline by which they had to submit a financial report.

The church also expelled SAR’s younger brother, DNR, from the membership of the GKA congregation, for alleged sexual abuse and verbal sexual harassment against congregation members on Sunday.

DNR’s alleged victims had reported their cases to the Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH APIK).

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