A pastor came under pressure from local Muslims in Indonesia on Christmas Eve to announce that Christmas services were cancelled even though his church won approval to hold the celebrations, Morning Star News reported.
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The Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services of the 70-member Indonesian Evangelical Mission Church Bethlehem went ahead as planned in Sukasirna village, despite the pastor’s announcement, delivered only to cool Islamist anger.
Pastor Irianto Budy on Dec. 24 was invited to attend a meeting organized by a Muslim group consisting of local governmental and religious leaders.
During the meeting, organizers stated that the church’s Christmas services should be banned due to potential attacks from outside hardline Islamic groups, though they provided no information about the nature of the prospective attacks or the identity of the assailants.
“I was asked to refrain from holding a Christmas celebration because there are potential attacks from outside or from hardline groups,” Pastor Irianto told Morning Star News. “Therefore, they [also] asked us to refrain from worshipping on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, 2026. But Sundays are permitted.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and published by Morning Star News.
