{"id":5544,"date":"2026-03-19T07:07:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T07:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:07:02","slug":"church-holds-service-despite-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Holds Service Despite Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Dec. 24, 2025, Muslim leaders insisted on an official ban and pressured a local pastor in West Java province to cancel his church&rsquo;s planned holiday worship services. Religious and government leaders cited the potential for attacks from radical Islamist groups but could not identify a specific threat. While a public announcement was made that the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations were canceled, the 70-member church decided to continue their services as planned. &ldquo;I was indeed under pressure in the video [announcing the ban],&rdquo; said Pastor Irianto Budy. He added that his congregation has frequently received pressure and threats from Muslim groups. Though the government has made steps to protect minority religious groups, front-line workers report that Indonesia has become more conservatively Islamic in recent years with Islamic extremist groups targeting churches for demonstrations, legal complaints and violence.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/globalprayerguide\/indonesia\/\">Click here<\/a> to find out about Christian persecution in Indonesia and learn how to pray.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icommittopray.com\/request\/2955\/christians-in-indonesia\/\" target=\"_blank\">Post a prayer for Christians in Indonesia on iCommitToPray.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Dec. 24, 2025, Muslim leaders insisted on an official ban and pressured a local pastor in West Java province to cancel his church&#8217;s planned holiday worship services. Religious and government leaders cited the potential for attacks from radical Islamist groups but could not identify a specific threat. While a public announcement was made that the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations were canceled, the 70-member church decided to continue their services as planned. &#8220;I was indeed under pressure in the video [announcing the ban],&#8221; said Pastor Irianto Budy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-5544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-commit-to-pray","tag-indonesia","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Church Holds Service Despite Ban - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church Holds Service Despite Ban - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Dec. 24, 2025, Muslim leaders insisted on an official ban and pressured a local pastor in West Java province to cancel his church&#039;s planned holiday worship services. Religious and government leaders cited the potential for attacks from radical Islamist groups but could not identify a specific threat. While a public announcement was made that the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations were canceled, the 70-member church decided to continue their services as planned. &quot;I was indeed under pressure in the video [announcing the ban],&quot; said Pastor Irianto Budy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-19T07:07:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"headline\":\"Church Holds Service Despite Ban\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-19T07:07:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":171,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/VOM-Stories-iCommit-PlaceholderV2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Indonesia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"iCommitToPray\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/church-holds-service-despite-ban\\\/\",\"name\":\"Church Holds Service Despite Ban - 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