Daniel Bambang Dwi Byantoro 曹衡进 | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Nikopolis (Jakarta) | |
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| Church | Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece (Formerly:Indonesian Orthodox Church) |
| Appointed | 1990 |
| Predecessor | Office established |
| Successor | Incumbent |
| Orders | |
| Rank | Bishop |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Daniel Bambang Dwi Byantoro 1956 |
| Denomination | Eastern Orthodox Church(earlySunni Islam, previouslyProtestantism) |
| Alma mater | Protestant Theological Seminary, the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission |
Daniel Bambang Dwi Byantoro (Chinese:曹衡进;pinyin:Cáo Héngjìn; born inJava, 1956) is an Indonesianbishop as well as founder of theIndonesian Orthodox Church. He served in Most Holy Trinity Parish, Banjarsari,Surakarta and Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Jalan Lengkong Raya, Serpong,South Tangerang,Banten.[1]
Byantoro was born to a middle-class family in Indonesia.[2] He was brought up by his maternal grandfather. He studied theKoran, and receivedIslamic teaching. According to his claim, he was converted to Charismatic Christianity, when Christ appeared to him during his evening Islamic prayers.[2]
In 1978, Byantoro studied in Protestant Theological Seminary, the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission, (ACTS) inSeoul,South Korea. In 1982, he foundThe Orthodox Church byKallistos Ware in a bookshop in Seoul, who introduced theEastern Orthodox Church to him. On September 6, 1983, he converted to the Orthodox Church with the blessing ofEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Patriarch Demetrios and Metropolitan Bishop Dionysius ofNew Zealand and chrismated byArchimandriteSotirios Trambas (Zelon Bishop, serving in Korea).[3]
Byantoro completed his education in Korea, then travelled toGreece and theUnited States before returning to Indonesia.[3]
On June 8, 1988, Byantoro began ministry in Indonesia. The first person who he converted to Orthodox Church was an ex-Muslim man named Muhammed Sugi Bassari, baptized as Photios, in April 1989.[3]
Theologically speaking, Byantoro has used the existing thought patterns of Indonesian culture to package Orthodox teaching within the Indonesian mental set up. Just as the Church Fathers had to faceGreek paganism,Judaism, andGnosticism in order to present the Gospel intelligibly to ancient peoples, Orthodox theology faces similar challenges in the context of the Indonesian mission. Those challenges are the Islamic strand that hassimilarities with Judaism (both Judaism and Islam have similarities with not only each other but also Christianity as all three areAbrahamic religions from their common spiritual origin from themonotheism promoted byAbraham), theHindu-Buddhistic strand that has similarities with Greek paganism (both Hinduism and Greek paganism have their origins inProto-Indo-European religion), the Javanese-mystical strand calledKebatinan (the Esoteric Belief) that has similarities to Gnosticism (it is divided into many mystical denominations and groups) and thesecularistic-materialistic strand of the modern world.[4][5]
Though not canonically released from the Orthodox Metropolitanate ofHong Kong andSoutheast Asia, Byantoro is officially regarded as defrocked by OMHKSEA[6] In 2019, he and some of the clergy left ROCOR for theChurch of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece.[7] In 2023, he was consecrated bishop ofJakarta.[8]
Material was copied from this source, which is available under aAttribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.5)Archived 2011-02-23 at theWayback Machine license and theGNU Free Documentation LicenseArchived 2019-01-08 at theWayback Machine (GFDL).| Eastern Orthodox Church titles | ||
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| Preceded by Position established | Archimandrite of Indonesia of theIndonesia Orthodox Church 1990–2019 | Succeeded by N/A |