Sardjo Djojodihardjo (d. 1948)

Sardjo Djojodihardjo was chosen to serve as secretary of the synod of the Gergeja Injili di Tanah Jawa (Evangelical Church of Java), Indonesia, at the time of its formation in May 1940 in a time of crisis. Two years later, to deal with the chaos and spiritual destruction resulting from the Muslim uprising of March 1942, Sardjo was appointed to one of the two teams of two selected to visit each congregation and assess their condition and needs. At the same time he became the chairman of the synod, a responsibility he held intermittently during the following years of Japanese occupation, persecution, famine, and revolution. Hurried removal from the hospital after an operation to escape Dutch military action brought about his untimely death in 1948 in Surakarta.
By that time Sardjo Djojodihardjo had served the mission and then the independent national church for 35 years. Part of that time he was a teacher in the teacher training school in Margorejo. Part of it was spent as a Bible translator working with Pieter Anton Jansz on the revsion of the Javanese Bible. In 1941 he was appointed to carry on the administration of the mission's 22 elementary and secondary schools when missionary activities were increasingly limited. He also maintained contacts in circles of teachers of Javanese mystical philosophy and their disciples to challenge them with the Christian gospel. Perhaps his most significant ministry was as pastor of the Pati congregation for more than a decade until the time of his death.