A rumored upcoming world congress of the "Church of Satan" in the Indonesian Christian stronghold of North Sulawesi has drawn condemnation and scorn from Catholic and Protestant Church leaders.
Manado Post, a daily in Indonesia's national language, and local Pacific TV reported April 28 about a proposed Church of Satan world congress in June to take place in the North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado, 2,115 kilometers northeast of Jakarta. Church of Satan members reportedly received information about the event from text messages sent to their mobile phones.
"This is a threat and temptation for Christians in North Sulawesi," Reverend Mathin Luther Rindengan of Evangelical Church in Minahasa told UCA News May 3.
Reverend Lefrant Lapian, general chairman of the Union of Pentecostal Churches in Indonesia, told UCA News he had heard about the proposed congress four months ago and gets updates about it "repeatedly."
The Protestant pastor described the presence of the Church of Satan as an "antichrist effort" to disturb Christians, who comprise the majority of the population in North Sulawesi. The province has 1,371,214 Protestants, or 66.36 percent of the total population, who worship in 3,201 churches. The 128,986 Catholics make up 5.3 percent of the population.
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