A different Christmas story

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December 2006

A different Christmas story

At all Saints Church in Jakarta the Christmas Eve celebrations in 2000 began on a high. Andrew Lake remembers it well.

At 6pm we had Carols by Candlelight at a school campus in South Jakarta. It was exhilarating to be worshipping with over 400 expatriates from every part of the globe. Then we had a number of parishioners over to our house for supper, which included an impromptu concert. About 9 pm my colleague George Thomas phoned to consult whether we should go ahead with the midnight service at our church in Central Jakarta because a suspicious bag had been found in the church carpark and the police had cordoned off the street in front of the church. We quickly decided to go ahead and use an alternative access to the back of the church. When I arrived at 11 pm with teenage daughters, Hannah and Susie, we were led through the property next to the church, down a narrow cul-de sac and through a steel door into the churchyard. That door had been installed only a few months before as an escape if the church ever came under attack. I remember preaching on how our Lord Jesus was born at the time of the mad and bad King Herod, and how God is with us when we are under the shadow of persecution and death. By the time we left the church the bomb squad had departed with the suspicious bag.

The next morning the news broke that something like 10 bombs had been planted outside churches across Indonesia on Christmas Eve, how 15 people had been killed and many others injured. Only one bomb had failed to explode - the one at All Saints. At the South Jakarta church only about 64 people came for Christmas morning communion, the rest staying away because of the bombings.

There are two postscripts to this different sort of Christmas story:

First, a friend from the American Embassy told us four days after the incident that he had been informed that the little blue cabin bag had contained 800 grams of TNT, 15 kilograms of gun powder, a detonator, a digital clock and 40 ball bearings. By the time the police had defused it there was 10 minutes left on the clock.

Second, it wasn't until the Bali bomb investigations almost three years later that it was confirmed that JI had carried out the Christmas Eve bombings.

I'm sad about the death and destruction of that night, but glad to be reminded that Jesus was born into a world of terror and has, in fact is, the message for our present Age of Insecurity.

	The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search
	a healthy church...transformingLIFE
	Home About Contact us News Issues Parishes Prayer Calendar Youth Resources

				December 2006

		A different Christmas story At all Saints Church in Jakarta the Christmas Eve celebrations in 2000 began on a high. Andrew Lake remembers it well. At 6pm we had Carols by Candlelight at a school campus in South Jakarta. It was exhilarating to be worshipping with over 400 expatriates from every part of the globe. Then we had a number of parishioners over to our house for supper, which included an impromptu concert. About 9 pm my colleague George Thomas phoned to consult whether we should go ahead with the midnight service at our church in Central Jakarta because a suspicious bag had been found in the church carpark and the police had cordoned off the street in front of the church. We quickly decided to go ahead and use an alternative access to the back of the church. When I arrived at 11 pm with teenage daughters, Hannah and Susie, we were led through the property next to the church, down a narrow cul-de sac and through a steel door into the churchyard. That door had been installed only a few months before as an escape if the church ever came under attack. I remember preaching on how our Lord Jesus was born at the time of the mad and bad King Herod, and how God is with us when we are under the shadow of persecution and death. By the time we left the church the bomb squad had departed with the suspicious bag. The next morning the news broke that something like 10 bombs had been planted outside churches across Indonesia on Christmas Eve, how 15 people had been killed and many others injured. Only one bomb had failed to explode - the one at All Saints. At the South Jakarta church only about 64 people came for Christmas morning communion, the rest staying away because of the bombings. There are two postscripts to this different sort of Christmas story: First, a friend from the American Embassy told us four days after the incident that he had been informed that the little blue cabin bag had contained 800 grams of TNT, 15 kilograms of gun powder, a detonator, a digital clock and 40 ball bearings. By the time the police had defused it there was 10 minutes left on the clock. Second, it wasn't until the Bali bomb investigations almost three years later that it was confirmed that JI had carried out the Christmas Eve bombings. I'm sad about the death and destruction of that night, but glad to be reminded that Jesus was born into a world of terror and has, in fact is, the message for our present Age of Insecurity.