Batakkerk — Dutch for “Batak Church”, the indigenous Protestant church of the Batak lands of northern Sumatra — is named in Dr. Brouwer’s chapter De invloed der protestantsche zending in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946) as one of the indigenous (inheemsche) churches of the Dutch East Indies that had achieved self-governing status by the late-colonial period. The church, founded in 1930, had by 1946 some 430,000 members — making it, with the Minahassakerk (300,000) and the Moluksche kerk (180,000), one of the three largest indigenous Protestant churches of the Indies.
Batakkerk’s outreach to Atjeh
Brouwer’s chapter records one specific Atjeh-relevant fact about the Batakkerk: its missionary outreach extended “through its swarming members across the border of Atjeh” (de Batakkerk werft door zijn uitzwermende leden tot over de grens van Atjeh). That is, Batak Christians — lay members of the Batakkerk — migrated as evangelists into the Atjeh borderlands, carrying their Protestant faith with them into a region that was otherwise, in the volume’s account, almost uniformly Muslim. The mention is brief but significant: it is one of the few references in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk to a Christian presence (however small) in or adjacent to Atjeh.
Place among the indigenous churches
Brouwer’s list of indigenous churches that had achieved self-governing status by 1940 — with their founding dates and approximate memberships — runs:
- Batakkerk (1930): 430,000 members
- Oost Java kerk (1931): 35,000
- Midden Java kerk (1933): 20,000
- Minahassakerk (1934): 300,000
- West Java kerk (1935): 5,000
- Dajakkerk (1935): 10,000
- Moluksche kerk (1936): 180,000
- Niaskerk (1938): 130,000
The Batakkerk is by far the largest of these indigenous churches, and the only one whose missionary outreach extended across the border into Atjeh.
Significance for Atjeh
For the Atjeh-focused reader, the Batakkerk’s significance is the documentation of a small but real Christian presence in the Atjeh borderlands, established not by foreign missionaries but by lay Batak Christians migrating into the region. The Batak–Atjeh religious frontier — between the Christian (and part-animist) Batak lands to the south-east and the Muslim Atjeh sultanate to the north-west — is a recurring feature of the volume’s account of northern Sumatra; the Batakkerk’s “swarming” lay evangelists are the clearest twentieth-century institutional expression of that frontier.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Nederlandsch-Indië — Netherlands Indies
- Batakkerk — Batak Church
- Minahassakerk — Minahassa Church
- Moluksche kerk — Moluccan Church
- Dajakkerk — Dayak Church
- Niaskerk — Nias Church
- invloed der protestantsche zending — influence of Protestant missionary work
- inheemsche — indigenous
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Java — Java
- Sumatra — Sumatra
- Minahassa — Minahassa
- Karo — Karo
- Batak — Batak
- Toba — Toba
- zen — Zen
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), pp. 112 and 116 (chapter De invloed der protestantsche zending door Dr. K. J. Brouwer).