The Leimena Institute was founded in 2005 as a response to the national situation in Indonesia at that time and the encouragement of the national church leaders. Christians’ participation in nation-building has received the attention of churches for a long time. Therefore, the 1984 National Congress of the Council of Churches in Indonesia (DGI) in Ambon mandated the Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) to create a think tank called Leimena Academy with its first chairman, Lt. Gen. T.B. Simatupang.
Leimena Institute is named after Dr. Johannes Leimena (1905-1977) to commemorate him as a statesman and a churchman in Indonesia and to follow his leadership. He put love first among everything and served all those around him.
In 2004, with the advice and encouragement from the leaders of national fellowships of churches from different denominations, board members of the Leimena Academy agreed to establish Leimena Institute as an independent think tank (no longer under PGI) to reflect the diversity of churches.
Mission: To develop Indonesia’s civilization that is based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, and global civilization that upholds human dignity through collaboration in a plural society. We believe that religious values integrate moral, ethical, and spiritual basis for nation building in Indonesia and around the world. In the spirit of unity and pluralism, we build connections with religious and public leaders in Indonesia and the world, to lay down the moral, ethical, and spiritual basis for life. We collaborate by honoring and cultivating diversity and equality in society.
The Leimena Institute’s program entitled Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy, our program offers an approach to thinking and behaving to be able to work together with people of different religions and beliefs (collaborative competence). It is based on moral, spiritual, and personal self-knowledge (personal competence) as well as understanding others that hail from different religions or hold different beliefs (comparative competence).
