June (Web-only) 2000

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For Francisco de Vasconcelos, the 35-year-old general secretary of the Christian Church of East Timor (GKTT), the withdrawal of Indonesia from his homeland last year means that his church is entering a"new era."During the decades that East Timor was occupied by Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, Indonesian language and culture dominated the life of the small Protestant church, tiny by comparison with the Roman Catholic Church to which most Timorese belong. Although some services were held in Tetum (the indigenous language of East Timor), the Bible, hymnbooks and the liturgy were all in Indonesian.Before Indonesia withdrew from the territory, the church's members were drawn roughly equally from among Indonesians and Timorese. Nevertheless, the Timorese"became marginalized" in their church, De Vasconcelos said.The GKTT was formed in 1988, but there were small Protestant communities in East Timor before the Indonesian invasion, De Vasconcelos told ENI in Tomohon, where he was attending the 11th general assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA). During the assembly his church became a member of the CCA. Much has changed since October last year, when Indonesia withdrew from the territory, following a UN-sponsored referendum in August in which most Timorese voted for independence. However, before withdrawing, the Indonesian army and anti-independence militia engaged in campaign of violence, leaving a trail of death and destruction."They burned and destroyed everything," according to De Vasconcelos, who became the church's first Timorese general secretary in 1996—his predecessors were Indonesian—a post he holds until a meeting of the church's general assembly next month.De Vasconcelos came to ...