Gereja Injili di Tanah Jawa (GITJ)

Gereja Injili di Tanah Jawa (GITJ; Evangelical Church of Java), the predominately Javanese Mennonite conference of the north central part of the island of Java, Indonesia, was formed on 30 May 1940, 81 years after the beginning of Dutch Mennonite mission work in the area around the Muria Mountain in the early 1850s. The new conference consisted of 10 congregations with their 30 branch congregations. It had 4,409 adult members. The original name of the conference was Patunggilanipun Para Pasamuan Kristen Tata Injil ing Wengkon Kabupatan Kudus, Pati Ian Jepara (current spelling; literally: Union of Gospel-Patterned Christian Churches in Kudus, Pati and Jepara Counties).
The Margorejo congregation had become independent of direct mission oversight in 1928 and in the 1930s some planning toward the formation of a conference body took place. However the actual formation of the conference in 1940 was a hurried response to the arrest and imprisonment of two of the four active men working with the Dutch Mennonite mission team, Hermann Schmitt and Otto Stauffer. Both were German citizens and both died when their prisoner transport was sunk. This imprisonment of German nationals by the Dutch colonial government was in response to the occupation of The Netherlands by the German army on 10 May 1940.
The board chosen to lead the new conference consisted of the two remaining missionaries, Daniel Amstutz and Dr. K. P. C. A. Gramberg, chairman and vice-chairman respectively; Sardjo Djojodihardjo, secretary; Wigeno Mororedjo, treasurer; and Soedjono Harsosoedirdjo and Samuel Saritruno as members. However, during the second assembly (May 1941) both of the missionaries resigned from their posts in the conference organization and were replaced in their roles by national leaders, Soedjono Harsosoedirdjo (pastor of the already independent Margorejo church) and Samuel Saritruno respectively.
Within a year these leaders were to be severely tested in a Muslim uprising at the time of the Japanese invasion in March 1942. The uprising resulted in the martyrdom of missionary Heusdens (on loan from another mission) at the Donorojo Leprosy Colony, and Leimena, the head of the plantation of the colony for the poor at Ngablak, and the attempted slaying of Dr. Ong, a Chinese Muslim staff doctor at the mission hospital in Tayu. It also resulted in the destruction of much property including the large, beautiful church building at Margorejo and the hospital in Tayu. The most serious damage, however, was spiritual—to the leaders and the members of the Margorejo, Tayu, and Ngeling congregations where the leaders, including Soedjono Harsosoedirdjo, Samuel Saritruno, Samuel Hadiwardojo, and Surat Timotius, were severely mistreated through efforts to try to force them to become Muslims. From that time to the present a series of capable leaders in addition to the above mentioned—including Sardjo Djojodihardjo, Soehadiweko Djojodihardjo, Sastroadi and Pirenamoelja—have led the Evangelical Church of Java through military occupation, persecution, famine, revolution, and political, religious and economic upheaval.
The severe hardship suffered during the church's first decade is indicated in the sharp decline in membership from 4,409 in 1940 to ca. 2,400 by 1949. From the 1950s through the 1970s, despite continuing difficulties, a pattern of remarkable growth developed. By 1969 the 18 member congregations and ca. 125 branch congregations numbered 18,483 baptized members. In 1988 60 member congregations and 105 branch congregations reported a membership of 50,000. This latter figure is an estimate and should be taken to include both the children of Christian families and perhaps as many as 6,000 people who at one time or another registered interest in becoming Christians but have never been baptized. In 1969 the statistics showed 6,944 such persons in addition to the figure for baptized members given above.

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