Daniel Bambang Dwi Byantoro


Daniel Bambang Dwi Byantoro is an Indonesian archimandrite as well as founder of the Indonesia Orthodox Church. He was served in Most Holy Trinity Parish, Banjarsari, Surakarta and Sts. Peter & Paul Parish in Jalan Lengkong Raya, Serpong, South Tangerang, Banten.

Early life

Byantoro was born to a middle-class family in Indonesia.. He was brought up by his maternal grandfather. He studied the Koran, and received Islamic teaching. According to his claim, he was converted to Charismatic Christianity, when Christ appeared to him during his evening Islamic prayers.
In 1978, he studied in Protestant Theological Seminary, the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission, in Seoul, South Korea. In 1982, he found The Orthodox Church by Kallistos Ware in a bookshop in Seoul, who introduced the Orthodox Church to him. On September 6, 1983, he converted to the Orthodox Church with the blessing of Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Patriarch Demetrios and Metropolitan Bishop Dionysius of New Zealand and crismated by Archimandrite Sotirios Trambas.
He graduated from Korea, and went to Greece, the United States, before returning to Indonesia.

Ministry

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, on April 1989.

Thought

Theologically speaking, Archimandrite Daniel 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 face Greek paganism, Judaism, and Gnosticism 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 has similarities with Judaism, the Hindu-Buddhistic strand that has similarities with Greek paganism, the Javanese-mystical strand called "Kebatinan" that has similarities to Gnosticism., and the secularistic-materialistic strand of the modern world.